


Falling All Over The Place

by mccolfer



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Gen, M/M, excessive use of links, this was supposed to be malum but it turned into mostly michael/luke/ashton friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-16
Updated: 2014-06-16
Packaged: 2018-02-03 05:15:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1732451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mccolfer/pseuds/mccolfer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Michael gets a new phone and also a cat and he tries to get Ashton to pick him up but he texts the wrong number. Then maybe he keeps texting the wrong number. Nobody is punk rock and everyone's sexualities are ambiguous.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Falling All Over The Place

**Author's Note:**

> Just here to apologize for whatever the summary is and also the title (which is from [Settle Down by The 1975](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsYE078RQCI)). I honestly got this idea from [a Glee fic](http://iknowitainteasy.livejournal.com/812.html) I read a while back, which I recommend even if you hate Glee because it is a great fic. I hope this fic isn't just a carbon copy of that.
> 
> This kind of got away from me, like, I started writing it and it turned out very different than I expected. It is more Michael/Ashton/Luke being domestic bros living on their own in America than anything. I kind of like it though, which is more than I can say for most things I write.
> 
> This was written with white hair Michael and also reverse skunk Michael because those were my favorite on him.
> 
> Probably the hardest part of this fic was finding out how to incorporate emojis. I kind of explained them but also I provided links to pictures of them.
> 
> [whispers] general disclaimer i do not know any member of 5sos personally and this story is just based off of fictionalized versions of a character that i have interpreted from their public personas sorry

Michael Clifford grinned at the shiny screen of his newly acquired iPhone. His last one met its unfortunate demise falling into the toilet as Michael attempted to pee while slightly intoxicated. Or rather, drunk off his ass.

He had to work double shifts for a month at the ice cream place _and_ beg his mother for a loan. Both things had taken a lot of pride swallowing, something Michael does not handle well.

As he walked outside, eyes half trained on his new phone setting itself up and half on the ground, he felt a dreaded drop of rain hit his head and soak into his bleached white hair. He pouted, looking up at the rarely grey LA sky. Sometimes he wishes he had stayed in Sydney.

Michael glanced back down at his phone and saw that it was finally set up and ready for use, but his smile faded as he saw the time. He was going to miss his fucking bus.

He worked his skinny jean clad legs into a sprint, but he knew he was about a block away from the bus stop. Just as he arrived, the bus started taking off.

"Fuck me!"

Across the street, a woman holding the hand of a little girl shot him a scandalized glare. Michael resisted the urge to flip her off.

He felt another drop of rain drop down onto his ratty old band shirt, "Fuckin'..." He muttered curse words to himself as he took a seat on the dirty bus stop bench under the small cover it provided.

Fuck, he was going to have to call Ashton to come pick him up because he was the only one with a fucking car, and Ash was going to nag him the whole fucking way home.

A small whine interrupted Michael's angry thoughts. He looked to his left and saw a cardboard box that he totally missed when he sat down. On the side was written, "FREE CATS".

Michael scoffed, that was suspicious and cliche. He turned away from the box, turning on his phone and opening the preinstalled Message app. Then he was distracted by a mewl.

The cat chose that moment to stick its adorable fluffy head out of the box and Michael was pretty much screwed from there. He cooed, scooting closer to the box and holding his hands out hesitantly.

The cat looked healthy, its white fur clean except for a black splotch along its back. He brought his hand closer slowly, and the cat reached out more to shove its head into his palm. Michael giggled and picked the cat out of the box delicately. Upon running his hand over its back, Michael found that the black was just part of its fur pattern. There were no other cats in the box, so he inspected this one to figure out why no one wanted it.

It seemed fine, purring gently as Michael's stubby fingers raked through its long hair. He guessed the other ones were just cuter, "But I don't see how that's possible," He said in a baby voice to the cat.

"Well, it's not like I can turn you away now, huh?" Michael said, "Guess you're comin' home with me. You're gonna love Luke. Ash might take some getting used to. He gets weirdly grumpy about things."

The cat just made a noise in the back of its throat in response. Or maybe it was just making a noise at that time coincidentally. But if Michael wanted to believe it was communicating to him, he could. And he planned to.

Michael went back to his phone, setting the cat down on his lap. It whined and started dragging its little head along the tattoo on Michael's arm when it lost his attention. Michael giggled, tapping out a message with one hand and petting the cat with his other.

**Sooo good news and bad news. Bad news probably no band prac tonight, I missed the fucking bus and I need you to come find me and take me home. Good news I totally got us a fucking CAT!!**

Michael picked up the cat and hit the button to attach a photo to the message. He pressed his face into the cat's face and took the picture. He deemed it precious enough to convince Ashton.

But at the top of the screen, there was a box that said "To:" with no name next to it. Shit, did Michael even know Ashton's number?

"Stupid, shitty phone carrier...can't transfer my old contacts...knew I should have switched..." Michael muttered to himself as he typed in some numbers that sounded vaguely familiar and hoped for the best as he hit send.

It was pouring by this point, the cat was not liking the sound of the rain smacking down on the glass cover above the bench. Michael held it closer, waiting anxiously for a response.

Finally one came, but not the one Michael wanted.

_You and that cat are both super cute but you have the wrong number bro_

Michael groaned, blushing a bit. He typed out an apology before resending the first message to a slightly different number.

**Fuck shit sorry dude new phone wrong number**

The wrong number replied almost instantly.

_Hey no problem man. I hope you find your ride home_

At the end was the [cute little blushy smiley emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0088.png). Michael smiled down at his phone, he couldn't help but type another response.

**As an apology please accept more photos of my new cat**

Michael took a couple before settling on the one of him holding up one of the cat's paws as if she (he'd figured out) was waving and he was in the back with his cheeks puffed out and his eyes crossed. As the message sent, his phone vibrated with a new message.

_WE ARE NOT KEEPING THAT CAT!!! Where are you??_

Michael texted Ashton his location, sighing in relief that he managed to get a hold of him after only one wrong number. He saved Ashton’s contact and started dicking around on his phone, downloading apps he remembered using a lot on his old one.

Fine minutes later, Michael found himself anxiously staring at the small conversation with the wrong number. He frowned, maybe the second picture was too much. Maybe that person thought he was ugly and weird. Maybe that person was being sarcastic the whole time.

Finally, Michael heard the telltale signs of Ashton’s crappy silver car pulling up. Michael stood up and pocketed his phone, holding the cat with one hand. He opened the passenger door and was immediately met with Ashton’s familiar voice with a slightly less familiar nagging tone.

“No, put the cat back in the box.”

“I want the cat!” Michael said, trying to keep his voice playful.

Ashton shook his head, his curly locks covered by a black fedora that Michael always makes sure to make fun of, “You are not bringing that cat home with us! Do you even know how much having a pet costs?!”

“I’ll pay for it!”

“With what money?! The ice cream shop is only open for spring and summer!”

“It’s the beginning of spring now!”

Cars whizzed by the two as Michael hovered outside of the car, not breaking contact with Ashton's hazel eyes.

“What are you going to do in the fall though?!” Ashton exclaimed, “You need to think about the future, man!”

“I’m keeping the cat.” Michael said, finality in his tone. He got into the car and placed the cat on his lap. The cat instantly started walking over to Aston and she nuzzled her head against his arm. He brought his hand up to pet her, his huge palm and long fingers dwarfing her head even more. Ashton giggled and Michael knew he had won.

Ashton Irwin had been friends with Michael for about three years now, back when they were both still in school. They'd been living together for two of those years. Michael felt like he knew Ashton like the back of his hand. From his tanned skin to his dirty blond curls to his slightly annoying voice with the thickest Australian accent that ever existed probably.

Michael had met him when he had been back in Sydney, desperate to start a band, to have even a chance of living his dream. He and his best friend, Luke Hemmings, had found Ashton on Facebook. They thought they would have it made once they got a drummer, but something still wasn't right. Not even the move to America really helped, it just made the boys more poor.

Honestly, they needed a bassist. Bass is the backbone of so many songs. They were never going to be good without one.

Halfway home, Michael felt a vibration in his back pocket pulling him out of his trance the road put him in. He pulled out his phone and couldn’t hold back his grin.

_Keep that up and I might just change my mind and come pick you up_

There was a [winking emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0748.png) tacked onto the end. Michael blushed and laughed quietly to himself.

“What?” Ashton asked, ever the nosy one, “Who’s that?”

Michael waved him off, texting back.

**I already got my ride, luckily. But I am totally willing to keep this up**

He grabbed the cat and put her side to side with his face. He brought the camera really close to just get their eyes.

“What are you doing?” Ashton asked, exasperated, “Are you taking pictures with the cat?”

“Yeah,” Michael replied offhandedly as he sent the message.

“Why?”

They pulled into their parking spot at their apartment complex so Michael ignored the question and got out of the car instead. He rushed to get into the house. He knew once Luke saw the cat, that would be all they would be talking about and Ash would forget about the whole thing.

“Hey, you find Mikey?” Luke called out as Michael opened the door. Michael could only see the back of Luke’s blond head from where he was sitting on the couch, watching Spongebob.

Slowly, Michael walked up to his friend.

“Ash?” Luke called again, about to turn around. Michael threw the cat down on top of him from behind and the younger boy shouted.

He turned around quickly to see who had done this, holding tightly to the cat.

“You got a cat?” Luke asked.

Michael rolled his eyes, “No, it’s a fucking dog.”

“I thought you were going to get a new phone?” Luke said, looking the cat over and smiling gently at it. Michael took a seat on the other end of the couch and the cat came running back to him, leaving Luke with a pout.

“I did,” Michael replied, “I also got a cat.”

“We’re not keeping the cat,” Came Ashton’s voice as he walked up and took the middle seat of the couch. It was technically a two person couch, so he found himself pressed very close to his two friends.

“Yes, we are,” Michael said.

“ _No_ , we’re not.”

“ _Yes, we are_!” Michael raised his voice, making the cat jump off his lap and run back to Luke.

“I would like to keep the cat,” Luke said quietly, cuddling the cat close to his chest.

“Then you two can pay for the cat! And keep it clean! And change its litter box!” Ashton said, crossing his arms over his chest, “I’m not doing anything for that damn cat!”

“Fine!” Michael says loudly and defiantly, he gets up off the couch and starts walking towards the bathroom, “Come on, Luke, we’re going to give her a bath!”

Luke looked once at Ashton, who clearly was waiting for Luke to pick his side. Quietly, he muttered an apology before getting up and carrying the cat to the bathroom. Ashton frowned, “Fine then!”

The two ignored him.

“I’m quitting the band! You two can just have your own band! Try to keep rhythm without a drummer!” He shouted, grumpily, “You can call yourselves 5 Seconds of Cats! Maybe the cat can be the drummer!”

Luke let out a small chuckle, probably at the thought of a cat playing drums. Michael glared at him until he stopped. The bathroom door clicked shut and Ashton bitterly changed the channel even though he kind of liked the episode of Spongebob that was on.

Luke gently placed the cat into their sink, as they did not have a tub. Michael grabbed Ashton’s shampoo and conditioner and placed them on the sink.

“Are you sure we should use Ash’s special shampoo?” Luke asked tentatively.

“Fuck Ash.” Michael replied, “Turn on the water.”

Luke was hesitantly as he reached for the knob, “What if it attacks me?”

“She.” Michael corrected, pulling out his phone and not answering Luke’s question, “What’s your number?”

“You don’t know my number?”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Michael said sarcastically, “Do you know _my_ number, Luke?”

Luke looked down at his feet.

“I didn't think so, now tell me your number.”

He saved Luke in his contacts, and was surprised when his phone vibrated, a little notification appearing at the top of the screen. He’d almost forgotten about the wrong number person.

As Michael opened the message, the cat hissed at the feeling of cold water on its back. Luke kept his body as far away from her as he could, begging the water to warm up. Luckily, the cat didn’t move from her spot, but she looked really unhappy.

_You could probably start a service. I think people would pay to get frequent messages from you and your cat_

Michael tried to hold back his giggle, but he couldn’t. This person was totally flirting with him, and he didn’t even know what gender they were. Not that it’d really matter for him.

“What’s that, Mikey?” Luke asked, trying to look over Michael’s shoulder. Michael hit the home button and shoved his phone back in his pocket.

“None of your business, Lucas.” He said, “Wash the cat.”

“What should we name her?”

Michael hadn’t even thought of that.

“I think we should call her something pretty like Maria or Stella or Jasey or-”

“We’re not naming the cat after an All Time Low song,”

Luke pouted.

“Can we just call her like...Cat?”

“You want to name our cat... _Cat_?” Luke said incredulously.

“I want to name _my_ cat Cat.”

“Uh, who’s washing the cat right now?” Luke asked, a sudden burst of confidence in his voice. He looked down at his hands covered in soapy lather and buried in the cat’s fur, as an example, “It’s _our_ cat.”

“And we’re naming her Cat.” Michael said. He knew Luke wasn’t going to put up much more fight, so he pulled out his phone. Carefully, he took a sneaky picture of Luke's hands scrubbing Cat to send with his message.

**Are you offering money? Because I might need some extra now that we have cat lol**

By the time Cat was all clean and dried, it was almost midnight. Ashton had already turned off all the lights and gone to bed.

Michael started walking across the hall to his room when Luke spoke up, his voice tiny.

“Can I sleep with you tonight?”

When Luke had moved in with Ashton and Michael, there was never actually room for him. He usually slept on the couch or with one of the others if they were feeling up to it. Ashton obviously wasn’t tonight.

“It’s just, I have an exam tomorrow and…”

Luke started rambling on nervously, and Michael felt bad. Ashton had graduated and was working a full time job at a music store while Michael had dropped out and was working part time at the ice cream shop during the hot months. Luke’s mom would only let him move to America to band with his friends if he promised to finish school here.

“Hey,” Michael cut him off, “It’s cool,”

Luke smiled gratefully and pulled Michael in for a hug, Cat squished in between them. The older boy liked giving Luke a hard time, but he really did love him.

“But I get to be the little spoon,” Michael said and Luke let out a laugh in response.

Then Luke woke him up at 5 in the morning and Michael remembered why he doesn’t usually let Luke sleep with him. He grumpily pulled the covers over his coarse white hair as Cat jumped off the bed to follow Luke out the door.

After a half hour of hiding under the covers stubbornly, Michael finally gave up and decided to be awake. He could hear Luke fumbling around in the kitchen as he made himself a bowl of cereal. Michael listened to the sound of plastic on plastic as the spoon hit the bottom of the bowl for a little bit.

He reached over to his nightstand and grabbed his phone. He turned it on and saw he had a message from a random number.

Memories of the wrong number person came flooding back. Michael really needed something to save them as.

_If I have to pay I think I’m going to have to decline your service_

There was a [forlorn looking emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0758.png) at the end. Michael frowned, that message meant rejection if anything did. He deleted the conversation and exited out of the app, out of sight out of mind. Michael was not going to let this get him down.

Slowly, Michael rose from his bed. He ran a pale hand through his knotty hair, trying to work some kinks out before fluffing it back up to look slightly presentable. He got out of his bed and walked out to the kitchen/general living space. The apartment they had was small, really only meant for one or two people. Not for three boys all over six foot.

Luke was slowly finishing his cereal, dimples prominent as he chewed. The shirt he had on was definitely Ashton's, judging by the self-made holes littering it. Luke never knew how to keep track of his own clothes. He was probably in Michael's underwear.

"What are you doing out of bed?" Luke asked, his voice deep and gravelly with the morning.

Michael scowled at him, "I couldn't get back to sleep after you fuckin' woke me up."

Luke muttered an insincere apology and got up to put his bowl in the sink. He stopped for a second to check his hair, styled in a neat quiff, in the reflective surface of the toaster. He took a moment to mess it up a little, neat quiffs were not punk rock.

"Shouldn't you be going?" Michael asked, half whispering because his voice had not really woken up yet.

"You trying to get rid of me?" Luke deemed his hair decent and he went to grab his bag, slinging it over one shoulder. He was obviously too cool for two shoulders. Just look at his lip ring and his ripped up band shirt and his messy quiff and all the cool bracelets he had around his wrist.

Michael rolled his eyes at his friend, "Don't miss the bus, numb nuts." He looked down at the bracelets he had on his wrist. They were way cooler than Luke's bracelets. Probably just because they were on his wrist and not Luke's. Michael's wrist was so punk rock.

The blond stuck up his middle finger in response to Michael, "Bye,"

"Love you..." Michael called out absentmindedly, now distracted by the coffee machine that he could never work right.

"Love you, too!" Luke shouted, closing the door behind him. Michael focused his full attention on the coffee machine.

Ashton wandered out in only his boxers just in time to stop Michael from picking it up and chucking it out the window. He giggled a tired laugh at the sight of Michael and lightly shoved his friend away from the appliance.

"It hates me, Ash!" Michael whisper/shouted. He wanted to yell but it was too early for that.

Ashton laughed fondly, the skin around his eyes crinkling and white teeth showing, "I'm sure it does, Mikey."

Cat came out of nowhere to rub her body against Ashton's bare calf and Michael had pretty much completely forgotten about her.

"You need to get her a litter box before she pisses on the floor," Ashton said, his tone strict as he leaned down to press his hand to the cat's head. She nuzzled into the touch, loving the attention.

"No," Bitterly, Michael reached down and picked her up. She had no problem with this, now nuzzling into Michael's black shirt and leaving little white hairs everywhere. "You're not allowed to love Cat."

"You named the cat _Cat_?"

"Fuck off," Michael said, holding the cat closer, "I don't need to take this from you, I'm punk rock."

"I'd like to see how punk rock you are when you get cat hair all over every piece of clothing you own!"

"I'm gonna go rub Cat all over all your clothes!" Michael's voice raised to a shout. Ashton giggled and put his hands up in surrender.

"And to think I was going to make you coffee," Ashton looked at him pointedly.

Now Michael had a choice between his pride and his coffee.

"I'm sorry, Ash. I love you," He mumbled, putting Cat down and letting her rub up against Ashton's leg again.

"I love you, too, Mikey," He grabbed Michael by the shoulders and pushed him out of the kitchen and into the living room, which was not a long way to go, "Now, go play video games while I make you coffee."

Sometimes Michael wanted to punch Ashton, but most times he wanted to kiss him.

"After this, we can go get Cat some food and a litter box!" Ashton said, far too excited about this.

Michael groaned, "Don't you have work?"

"Not until 10,"

"Boo,"

Michael turned on their old Playstation 3 and loaded up the game he played when he wanted to waste time and shoot things. He was probably willing to sell Luke for a new console.

Soon enough, he was joined on the small couch by Ashton with two mugs of coffee. He always made Michael's coffee even better than Michael, himself, could. He leaned into Ashton, snuggling close to show his general gratitude for his friend.

Ashton just snuggled back, he knew Michael wasn't always good with his words. Especially when they weren't in song format. On a typical day, Michael manages to accidentally hurt pretty much everyone's feelings. He doesn't mean anything bad by it.

After about a half hour of watching Michael shoot things, Ashton got up. "Alright, enough of that. We've got cat stuff to buy."

Michael paused the game and frowned, he was hoping he could somehow avoid this.

"I, uh, don't have any money right now..."

Ashton sighed, "I told you that having a pet is expensive but _noo_ ," He waved his long arms erratically as he imitated Michael's voice, "'I'll pay for it myself!""

"Shut the fuck up, Ashton," Michael warned, he didn't take well to people making him seem as incompetent as he knew he was.

""I'll work double shifts at my _seasonal job_!"" Ashton continued.

Michael scowled, "I don't fucking need this. I'll go find money myself and buy the fucking litter box." He stood up and chucked the controller roughly onto the couch where he had been sitting. "I don't fuckin' need _you_."

He stormed into his room to put on his old, dirty pair of Converse and some fresh clothes. When he came back into the living room, Ashton was right where he left him, looking expectantly at Michael. The white haired boy aggressively exited their apartment and made sure to slam the door.

He didn't know where he was going, he literally had no money on him. He couldn't even take the bus, let alone buy a bunch of cat supplies.

He always fucks everything up. Michael never thinks anything through and he always ends up regretting his decisions. He should have listened to Ashton. He should go back right now and apologize to his friend.

Instead, Michael found himself sitting alone on a swing at a deserted playground. when he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He stared at the blank screen hesitantly. If it was Ashton, he didn't want to see the message.

But what if it wasn't? What if Luke was in trouble or something? What if it _was_ Ashton and _he_ was in trouble? What if his mom died?

Michael turned on his screen, but it was just a message from a random number.

_Just saw a cat and thought of you_

At the end was the [awkward smiley emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0740.png). Usually Luke liked to use that one, but Michael had Luke's number in his phone.

**Who is this?**

_Oh I'm the wrong number from yesterday. Sorry I knew I shouldn't have texted you obviously you stopped texting me yesterday for a reason_

The [emoji at the end had its eyes closed and a frown and a bead of sweat on its forehead](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0757.png).

Michael smiled slightly as he texted back.

**Oh no I thought you were rejecting me tbh**

_I knew I shouldn't have said that. I thought I had this flirting thing down_

A blush creeped onto Michael's face and probably all down his chest too, thanks to his pale skin.

**So you were flirting with me**

_What can I say? I have a weakness for cute ghost looking boys with bands and cats_

Michael rolled his eyes, knowing his bleached white hair and aforementioned pale skin really showed off his ghost realness.

**That's very specific**

_I'm pretty specific so I guess it's good you fit the description_

Michael smiled at the [little blushy emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0088.png) that the person tacked on. This was nice, he liked this.

**You know I was feeling pretty shit until you texted me**

_I'm glad I can help I wouldn't want you to be a sad ghost_

The message began with one [blushing smiley emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0088.png), obviously a favorite of this person, and the same [awkward smiley emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0740.png) from before. Michael felt kind of inferior, he only really used the [eggplant emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0265.png) to make penis jokes.

**I'm actually thinking of changing my hair soon so get all the ghost jokes out while you can**

Michael spent a good amount of time grinning stupidly at his phone and idly swinging as he texted the person. When he checked the time, it was 11.

He sighed and got up, stretching out his cramped limbs. Ashton would be gone to work by now. His phone vibrated.

_Oh fuck my teacher keeps shooting me looks I need to stop texting you_

Michael frowned, mood instantly changed. So this was in school... How young were they? Michael was suddenly hit with a realization that he knew literally nothing about the person he was texting. Except that they went to school and they lived somewhere nearby, judging by the number.

Michael could potentially be flirting with a twelve year old girl.

He shuttered.

Quickly, he closed the messaging app and started walking back home.

When he entered his apartment, he immediately spotted the litter box now residing in a small corner of the living room. He glared daggers at it as if it personally offended him.

He felt a little sick to his stomach, there was a chance that this litter box was either an apology or spit in Michael's face. He would only find out when Ashton returned home.

Between this and his possible pedophilia via text, Michael really needed something to distract him. He found himself wandering into Ashton's room to grab the acoustic guitar in there. He sat down on the couch, running a hand down Cat's back once. He strummed a chord, trying to remember [that song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBufNTQzeic) he half wrote that literally went down the toilet with his old phone.

It was a pretty heavy song, he was in a weird place when he started writing it. Maybe he could finish it now. Michael remembered giving up on it because it wasn't working and it was making him even more upset. He vaguely remembered Luke and Ashton forcing him to give up on it, telling him it wasn't helping.

He smiled sadly to himself, strumming the opening notes. He knew he was lucky to have his friends, even when they annoyed the hell out of him.

Michael started to sing quietly, gradually getting more confident. By the time Luke got home, he was excitedly belting and frantically typing the words on his notepad app.

"That sounds familiar," Luke commented, putting his book bag down next to the couch and sliding off his black Vans.

Michael hummed in response, finishing typing his sentence before replying, "Yeah, it's The Only Reason. You remember, that song I was writing a while back...when..."

Luke nodded, "Oh..." He took a seat next to Michael, waking up Cat and causing her to jump into the blond's lap. She made herself comfortable on his thighs, spreading white hair all over Luke's black jeans. He didn't seem to mind, he just rested a hand on top of the patch of black hairs on her back, "Are you, like, okay?"

"I'm fine, Luke."

Luke stared at his friend sympathetically.

"I'm fucking fine." Michael repeated, not liking the pity his friend was sending him.

Luke pouted, "I just, like, care about you, Mikey. Y'know?"

"Shut up, Luke," The older boy replied, but it didn't have as much bite as before, "Tell me if this is good."

Luke nodded and Michael started playing the song for him. He watched his friend play with his mouth idly open in awe. He always loved the songs Michael wrote. It was so hard to believe that his emotionally stunted friend, whose vocabulary usually consisted entirely of profanities, could put so much of himself into a song. He was truly meant for music, and Luke was honored to be by his side when he inevitably got the recognition he deserved.

"That was amazing, man." Luke said sincerely, moving to fix his already perfectly messy hair in order to resist the urge to clap. Even Cat had awoken from her nap to stare at Michael as he performed his song.

Michael smiled weakly, not looking Luke or the cat in the eyes. He determinedly stared down at the guitar strings.

"We should totally adapt that for the band," Luke said, trying to make his friend more comfortable, "We could get some badass harmonies, and the drums could be epic!"

"We need a fuckin' bassist." Michael said, he felt like it was his catchphrase every time someone brought up the band.

"Oh! Speaking of bassists," Luke started, smiling brightly, reaching next to him to pull a tattered notebook out of his bag, "There's this awesome kid in my music class. He's learning to play bass, and he writes _sick_ songs."

"Oh?" Michael felt weirdly adverse to the thought of a new member, even though he was literally just complaining that they needed one.

"Yeah! He's your age, his name's Calum Hood," Luke set the notebook in front of Michael, waving his hands as he talked, "We've been writing this together for an assignment we have. He wrote this awesome bassline for the beginning of it. I swear he is some kind of... _musical prodigy_ or some shit!"

Michael raised his eyebrows as Luke animatedly talked about Calum.

"Alright, Lukey-boy, calm your dick,"

Luke blushed and dropped his hands back down onto Cat's back. She purred loudly and he beamed down at her, dimples on full display.

"Your boyfriend's not bad," Michael said with a shrug as he looked over the notebook. It was clearly a rough draft, lines all crossed out and comments and doodles written in the margins. The title was written in all capital letters at the top with a lot of exclamation points and smiley faces, "[UNPREDICTABLE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEuFpbtzzTs)". There was a litter of red among the blue ink, probably stuff Luke added.

"He's not my boyfriend," Luke said, face tinted pink.

Michael chuckled, "Sure," He handed the notebook back to Luke, "So, when can we meet this Calum?"

Luke's grin faltered. "Chill out, I don't want you guys to scare him off,"

"Fuck you, Luke," Michael said, touching his chest as if hurt, "If he hasn't been scared off by you, he can handle me and Ash."

"Just, calm down, alright?" Luke said, trying to mollify his friend, "I just met Calum, I'm still getting to know him right now."

"What? Do you think he is secretly some crazy murderer?" Michael waved his hands in the air as if to show an impression of a crazy murderer.

Luke sighed, "I just feel like..." He sighed again, not finishing his sentence.

"Spit it out, Lucas!"

"We share everything!" Luke said back, his voice raising to meet the same volume as Michael's.

The older boy frowned, his eyebrows scrunching together, "What are you talking about?"

"I just...we share _everything_ , y'know?" Luke grabbed the front of his shirt, "I'm wearing Ashton's shirt right now, and your underwear."

"I knew it!"

The blond ignored his friend, "We sleep in the same bed sometimes and I'm pretty sure none of us have friends that aren't each other!"

Michael's frown deepened, he looked sadly down at the guitar in his lap, strumming a chord before saying, "...Do you want new friends?"

"Don't be dense! That's not what I meant and you know it!"

"Then what do you mean?"

"I mean, I love you and Ash. You guys are my best friends, _my band_. I just think things would be, like, healthier? If we had things that none of the others could have?" Luke sounded really unsure of himself, which was not aiding well to his argument.

"I think you're being stupid," Michael replied, "You're the one who brought Calum up in the first place."

Luke sighed again, pressing his fingers to his eyes and stretching the skin around them briefly, "I have a good feeling about him, okay? Like, I know you guys will love him when you meet him and that time will come. I just need some...time, or...whatever right now..."

Michael narrowed his eyes, "You're acting fuckin' weird, Luke."

"Let's just play FIFA, yeah?"

Normally, the older boy would not let Luke take control and change the subject like that, but he just went with it. He'd had enough trouble with Ashton today, he didn't need drama with Luke too.

They played until Ashton came home, wearing a red bandana around his curls and struggling with bags of groceries. "A little help here?"

Michael took a deep breath as Luke instantly paused the game to get up and help the oldest boy. He was going to ignore the whole litter box thing and hopefully Ashton was too.

He got off the couch, walking the few inches it took to get to the kitchen. Ashton looked up, making eye contact with the white-haired boy. Michael looked back, but Ashton simply raised his eyebrows.

"You gonna help?"

Michael let out a breath of air, moving to grab something out of one of the bags. It was a box of Fruit Loops, so he walked to the cereal cabinet. Luke shot both Michael and Ashton confused look but never got a response.

"Luke's got a boyfriend," Michael said offhandedly, trying to get as far away from the subject of the litter box as possible.

"Oh?"

"He's not-" Luke squeaked, exasperated, "He's got a girlfriend!"

"Aww, I'm sorry, Lukey." Michael responded with a giggle, putting more cereal boxes away.

"I'm not gay!"

In unison, Michael snorted and Ashton scoffed.

"Okay," Ashton said, putting two gallons of milk in the fridge.

Luke threw his arms out, "I'm not!"

"Luke, we sleep in the same bed occasionally," Ashton said nonchalantly, focusing on adjusting his bandana in the shiny surface of the toaster, "Don't think I don't feel you wake up with your morning wood pressing against my ass,"

He giggled as Luke blushed furiously, "I'm a teenage boy!"

"A teenage boy that grinds up on his _male_ friends in his sleep!"

Michael watched this whole ordeal with an offended look, "How come Luke never grinds his morning wood against me?"

Luke somehow blushed more, hiding his face behind a six pack of Red Bull.

"Luke just isn't into pasty ghost boys, I guess," Ashton replied with a smirk, clapping a hand on Luke's back and taking the Red Bulls from him.

"I can't believe I'm the only member of this band who is even _remotely_ homosexual, yet I am getting the _least_ amount of guy-on-guy action!"

Luke took to hiding his red face in his hands as Ashton giggled at his friends.

"Let's slow down there, Michael the Friendly Ghost." He grabbed all the empty plastic bags and crumpled them together, "I think if there is something we can all agree on, it's that we are all pretty ambiguous in the sexuality area."

"That's a big word for someone who thought llama only had one l,"

"Why the hell would llama have a double l?!" Ashton shouted, throwing the clump of bags into the trash aggressively.

"I like girls." Luke said quietly, mostly to himself, running a hand through his hair.

Ashton frowned, throwing on his oldest-member-of-the-band face. "Hey, it's okay, Lukey. We love you no matter what, yeah?"

"But we totally know you want to make out with Calum,"

Luke pouted up at Michael and he regretted his words instantly, even more when Ashton sent a harsh glare his way. He wrapped an arm around Luke and started talking quietly to him.

"So, I'm gonna..." Michael pointed behind him vaguely before rushing to his room.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket, quietly cursing himself out. He was so stupid sometimes. _Most times_.

He had a text from the wrong number person.

_Hey I forgot to say I hope your day gets better and I'm glad if I helped in anyway_

At the end was the [embarrassed monkey covering its eyes emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0796.png). Michael grinned.

**I was feeling better but then things went all downhill again because I am a piece of trash**

The reply started with the [sort of nervously sad emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0770.png).

_I'm sure you're not_

Then suddenly Michael was telling this total stranger everything that had just happened. It felt good, letting it all out. He had a tendency to bottle everything up and explode at random times.

_You seem like a cool guy. You just have some filter problems and issues expressing what you truly feel_

There was no emoji in the message, it was completely serious. It hit Michael like a ton of bricks. He was like an open book for this person and he didn't even know anything about them. He was so scared but so happy at the same time.

When he didn't reply for a while another message came.

_I know you're in a band, do you write songs? Sometimes I feel like I get my feelings across better when they are put to music_

**You’re kind of awesome you know that? I did finish a song I had given up on a while ago but it didn’t really have anything to do with the situation so maybe it didn’t help idk**

_Well is texting me helping?_

Michael thought for a moment.

**Yeah yeah I think it kind of is… Texting is a lot easier than actually talking I think**

_Good! I’m happy to help! Just keep texting me if you need to_

After the message was three [blushy smiling emojis](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0088.png). Michael grinned to himself and started talking about The Only Reason to this person. It was going to be one of his favorite songs he’d ever written, he thought.

It is dark by the time Michael looked up from his phone at the sound of his door opening. Luke was peeking his blond head in hesitantly, his quiff entering the room before him.

"Mikey?" He asked timidly, entering the room entirely. His teeth were digging into the skin around his lip piercing and he was anxiously twisting the ring around his pinky finger.

Michael sighed at his nervous friend, making sure to respond with a soft voice, "Yes, Luke?"

As soon as he finished answering, Luke was crawling into his bed and under his covers. He pressed his bare, cold feet in between Michael's bed-warm calves, nuzzling in close and pressing his cold lip ring to Michael's neck.

The white-haired boy whined, pushing his friend away. He didn't feel _that_ bad about what happened. He let Luke keep his feet where they were though.

"Can I sleep with you tonight? I don't really want to sleep with Ash..."

Michael could take this moment to totally embarrass his younger friend, which was usually one of his favorite pastimes. But Luke was pouting up at him and the soft moonlight leaking through his window made his pale skin and blue eyes look really pretty and mostly Michael just wanted to kiss all his pain away.

He settled for just wrapping him into a hug, letting Luke's lip piercing warm up against his collarbone, even though it was totally uncomfortable.

Then Michael's phone buzzed somewhere on the bed. The two boys started searching for it before Luke wiggled around a bit and conjured it up from underneath him.

He held the phone away from his friend for a moment, "Who are you always texting, Mikey?"

Michael was suddenly struck with the realization that he honestly could not answer that question. He didn't even know who he was texting. Michael didn't like looking like he didn't know what he was doing, especially in front of Luke.

"Shut the fuck up, Luke," Michael snapped, reaching to snatch his phone away. "Weren't you the one who said we should have things that we don't share with each other?"

Luke frowned, he obviously wanted to know more but didn't know how to ask without being a hypocrite.

"Forget about it or you can go sleep on the couch," Michael said as Luke opened his mouth to say something. He promptly shut it, his eyes shutting soon after. He turned away from Michael as the older boy turned on his phone to text back.

The conversation stopped soon after, Luke successfully ruining the mood between the two strangers.

Again, Michael was jostled awake by Luke detaching himself from his friend at 5 in the morning to get ready for school. He was close to asking the blond to just drop out, but Luke's mom would never forgive him.

Michael made sure to shoot his arm out weakly in an attempt to hit Luke, but he just heard a giggle and he knows he missed.

"Sorry, Mikey," Luke whispered, his voice far too deep for a seventeen year old and very, very Australian. He pressed a delicate kiss to Michael's forehead and patted his shoulder.

"Fuck off," The older boy tried to say, but it just came out as groggy mumbles, "You can't sleep with me anymore,"

"Okay, buddy," Luke responded, his voice amused and condescending. Michael didn't have to take this from him, he was more punk rock than Luke would ever be.

But instead of putting up a fight, he felt himself drifting back to sleep. The sun wasn't up yet, he shouldn't be either.

He woke up again two hours later and twisted and turned for a while before giving up. Michael just couldn't sleep for hours like he used to. He also had to work today.

Slowly, he got out of bed and wandered into the bathroom. Cat skittered out as soon as her little white paw hit one of the endless pools of water that Luke left. The mat in front of the shower was soaked. Michael didn't know how Luke managed to get so much water outside of the shower.

He took a cold shower, because the water heater had not yet recovered from Luke's apparent need for every ounce of hot water they had so he could splash it all around the bathroom. Then Michael discovered that Luke had also taken every single towel they all collectively owned as a band.

Nakedly, Michael stomped into his bedroom, passing by Ashton who was quick to squeak and cover his eyes.

"Michael! What are you doing, bro?!"

"Luke is an asshole!"

Michael grabbed his phone up off his bed and unlocked it, going into his contacts to call Luke.

The whispered answer came after a few rings, " _I'm in school, Michael,_ "

"What the fuck kind of olympics are you doing in the fuckin' bathroom, Lucas?!"

There was a cute giggle on the other side of the line, but not Luke's cute giggle.

" _I have class,_ " Luke said, trying to hold back a laugh too.

"Why did you pick up the phone then?"

" _I'm in music,"_ Luke responded, then his voice got far away and he laughed as he spoke to someone else, " _Shut up, Calum,_ "

"Oh?" Michael raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms. His once pissed voice now teasing, "Is your boyfriend, the music prodigy, there?"

" _Shut up!_ " Luke squeaked, probably blushing. There was more giggling and a faint voice in the background.

" _Aww, Lukey,_ "

Michael frowned, possessiveness washing over him and making his emotions turn right back around to pissed, "Only we're allowed to call you Lukey. Tell Calum to fuck off."

" _What? No!_ "

" _Who is that, Lucas?_ "

"Stay away from Luke!" Michael shouted into the receiver, "You haven't passed band inspection!"

There was a bit of an audible scuffle and soon Michael had Calum's voice right in his ear.

" _Who are you to banish me from Luke?_ " Michael had to admit that Calum's voice was very cute and kind of squeaky, especially when he was offended.

"Luke is my husband!"

" _I am_ not _his husband!_ "

"Why don't you love me like you used to?!" Michael screeched into the phone.

"Michael?" Came Ashton's concerned voice from outside his door, "What's going on in there?"

"I'm talking to Luke's boyfriend!"

" _He is_ not _my_ boyfriend _!_ " Luke's voice was tiny, as if Calum was keeping the phone away from him, " _And_ Michael _is_ not _my_ husband _!_ "

Ashton entered and immediately shouted, "You haven't even put clothes on!"

"It's nothing you haven't seen before!"

" _You're naked?!_ " Calum squeaked.

Michael smirked, "I sure am!"

"He sure is," Ashton repeated, with decidedly less enthusiasm.

" _Okay,_ " Luke sounded like he was completely done. There was another scuffle and then Luke was speaking into the receiver again while Calum whined in the background. " _Michael, put clothes on. I'm sorry I made a mess, and I'm not your husband and Calum is not my boyfriend!_ "

"No, you misunderstood, bro!" Ashton cut in, speaking into Michael's phone. "We're your hus _band_ s!"

Ashton erupted into a fit of giggles and Calum quickly followed on the other side of the line.

" _I hate you guys,_ "

" _Luke, why didn't you tell me you had a band?_ " Calum's far away voice asked, " _There go my plans of banding with you._ "

" _Hemmings! Hood! What have I told you-_ "

The line cut there, leaving Ashton and Michael in silence.

"I don't like Calum." Michael declared.

Ashton scoffed, "How about you go put on some clothes and then we can talk about how you "hate" Calum, yeah?"

"He is trying to steal Luke from us!"

" _Clothes_!"

Ashton walked out of Michael's room, closing the door harshly to punctuate his sentence. Michael grumbled as he walked to his closet.

He didn't seem the type, being incredibly punk rock and all, but he liked having all his clothes cleaned and hung up and _kept to himself,_ _thank you very much Lucas_.

He pulled on a tank top with an American flag print that he bought ironically when he moved to the States and a pair of black skinny jeans. They were ripped at the knee, more thanks to Luke.

Michael was going to lock his damn clothes up. He was convinced that Luke had not even brought anything when he moved.

He grabbed two white socks and a ratty pair of Converse and headed out to the kitchen, where he could smell coffee brewing.

As he entered the kitchen, Michael slid up behind Ashton and hugged him from behind, placing a kiss on his bare shoulder.

"Hey, babe,"

Ashton giggled and pushed his friend off playfully, "Fuck off!"

"How come you get to be naked?" Michael pouted.

"I'm not naked! I'm at least wearing pants!"

"I'm offended by your ripped torso," Michael whined, "Put on a shirt,"

"Shut up and drink your coffee, dork,"

With a giggle, Ashton handed a mug to the other boy. Michael inhaled the steam coming from the mug gratefully. He felt the end of Cat's tail brush his leg as she entered the kitchen. She walked over and started eating out of a little bowl that Michael had not noticed before.

He smiled gratefully as Ashton, "I don't know where I would be without you, babe,"

"Probably off causing trouble in Sydney,"

Michael nodded slowly, taking his coffee in.

"Did you notice Calum's accent?" Ashton said after Michael let out an embarrassing moan in reaction to his drink, "Leave it to Luke to make friends with the only other Aussie in LA."

"I don't like him." Michael said shortly. He had noticed Calum's accent. He noticed the slight undertones of New Zealand there too. But he didn't need to tell Ashton that, because he hated Calum. He didn't notice small, trivial things about his adorable voice because he hated him.

Ashton rolled his eyes, "Stop being jealous! This is good for us! We might get our bassist!"

"We don't need a bassist."

"Michael Clifford!" Ashton's voice raised but the playful lilt in it remained, "You have done _nothing_ but whine about needing a bassist every single time one of us mentions the band since we moved here!"

"No, we sound fine," Michael insisted, not really knowing why he was doing what he was doing, "It would be too much work to add someone new now! Our dynamic works with just us three."

"Oi, listen here," Now Ashton's voice was serious. He pointed a long finger at Michael, "You need to stop being selfish and accept that Calum might be what's right for the band. We need to give him a chance."

Michael sighed, but said nothing.

"Now, you go to work and sort out your shit, and stop being such a dick," Ashton slapped a hand down on Michael's star covered chest. Cat followed him as he exited the kitchen and left Michael alone and pouting.

He couldn't believe Cat liked Ashton more than him. Ash didn't even want her.

Grumpy pout etched onto his face, Michael pulled on his Converse. Today was just going to be another uneventful day of scooping ice cream for kids who screamed about his hair.

He boarded the bus and managed to find a seat. Now Michael had about a half hour before the bus finally got to his destination.

He took his phone out, opening the conversation with the random number person out of force of habit. He twiddled his thumbs, they were in school right now, probably. Michael found himself kind of hating calling them random number person and before he knew it, his fingers were tapping out a message.

**So like we've been texting for a while don't you think it's time we exchange names or something?**

Michael cringed as he hit send, but he knew there was nothing he could do now. The response came fifteen minutes later and was emoji free.

_Uhh, I don't know... Maybe this whole thing is kind of dumb_

**Hey whoa slow down! I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable... It's just that I'm kind of scared I've been spending all this time texting a twelve year old girl and I am secretly a pedophile**

This response came quickly and thankfully began with the [laughing emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0741.png). Michael let out the breath he was holding.

_I can promise you that I am legal. Is that enough for you?_

Michael bit his lip, he didn't want to push it.

**How about a name? It doesn't even have to be your name**

_Okay... Thomas_

**So you're a boy?**

_I never said that_

**I see what game you're playing**

Michael noticed that the bus had stopped and people were getting off. He looked at his surroundings and saw that it was his stop. He jumped up, successfully hitting his head on the hand rail. A chuckle erupted throughout the bus and Michael joined in politely instead of sending them all death glares. He rushed off the bus, apologizing as he bumped into people along the way.

_Do I get a name?_

**Wouldn't you like to know??**

_I see how it is_

At the end was a [monkey covering its mouth](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0798.png) and Michael caved instantly because Thomas was so cute.

**Michael**

_Sure okay Michael_

The [winky face](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0748.png) at the end of the message clearly showed that Thomas thought he was using a fake name too. Michael shrugged, no use trying to prove anything to them.

He stopped receiving messages just in time to get to work, much to Michael's chagrin.

But his day only got better when Luke walked in with a tanned boy in tow. As soon as he saw Michael he immediately turned around to started ushering his friend out, a predatory grin spread across Michael’s face.

“Where do you think you’re going, Lukey-boy?” He called out, the shop was pretty deserted now, but it would soon be bustling with the kids who just got out of school.

Luke sighs and stops trying to push his friend out, turning to face Michael, “I didn’t know you were working today,”

“Who’s that?” Luke’s friend was cute. Almost as tall as Luke was, which was too tall in most cases, and had five visible tattoos. Curly black hair sitting fluffy on top of his head, just above thick eyebrows and deep, innocent, puppy eyes. Michael could wreck him, he thought as he gazed at the boy’s plump set of lips, framed by cheekbones that could kill.

“I’m…” The boy started out confident, hand up in a wave, then he faltered. His bright smile faded into a confused frown, his eyebrows scrunching together, “I’m...Calum…”

Michael frowned back, all thoughts of wrecking the boy out the window, “You’re not welcome here!”

“Shut up, Michael,” Luke said, walking up to the counter. Calum slowly followed him, still looking at Michael like he’d never seen anything like him before.

“Michael…” He said quietly to himself, like he was trying to figure something out, “I _cannot_ believe…”

“What are you going on about, then?” Michael asked, not liking the way Calum was scrutinizing him. He looked at Luke, but he was just as confused by Calum’s behavior.

“Are you alright, bro?” Luke asked, placing a hand on one of Calum’s very broad, very muscular shoulders.

Calum shook his head, looking away from Michael. He pulled out his phone, which was dwarfed by Calum’s long, tan fingers, “Um, is there a bathroom here?”

Michael pointed to the bathroom and he and Luke watched as Calum walked away, his tight, blue jeans hugging his thighs and ass in a truly beautiful way.

As soon as Calum was out of hearing range, Michael turned to Luke, “You didn’t tell me Calum was _hot_!”

Luke threw his arms up, “That’s because I don’t like guys!”

“Any idiot can tell that he is hot, Luke! Look at his…” Michael threw up his own pale arm to make a very unimpressive muscle, “ _Arms_! And his ass! How many squats does he do in a day? How many Luke?!”

Luke sighed loudly, dropping his arms back at his side. "He has a girlfriend, you know,"

"Please," Michael waved a hand flippantly, "That's never stopped me before,"

"Well, it's going to stop you now," Luke responded, "You are  _not_ going to ruin things with Calum!"

Michael felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket, he almost ignored it, much too preoccupied with ignoring Luke and thinking about the way Calum looked in the white tank top he was wearing. 

But he couldn’t resist, he pulled out his phone and saw it was a message from Thomas. Michael was glad to finally be able to save him in his phone, and maybe he added that [little blushy emoji ](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0088.png)that Thomas was so fond of at the end of it, who cares?

_So is that your real name Michael?_

Michael smiled down at his phone. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Luke become even more annoyed.

“Now that you’ve met Calum, you totally have to tell me about that person you’ve been texting,”

“Bullshit!” Michael responded, typing a response.

**That’s for you to find out I guess Thomas**

Just as he hit send, Calum walked out of the bathroom, looking a little more comfortable, but very distracted by his phone.

“Sorry about that,” He said, shaking his head and putting his phone in his pocket, “Uh...ice cream!”

“Yes, we certainly have ice cream here at this ice cream shop,” Michael replied, smirking playfully at Calum.

He grinned back, “I see how it is,”

“Michael, why do you have to do this?” Luke was off to the side, looking very embarrassed.

The older boy just grinned, “Because I’m your hus _band_.”

“Stop saying that!”

“Considering the fact that you’re wearing my shirt right now and probably my underwear, I’m allowed to say whatever I want, dweeb,”

Calum giggled and it was even cuter in person than it was over the phone.

“What do I have to do to get band approval?” He asked, stepping closer to the counter that separated him from Michael, “Lucas’ friendship is very important to me,”

Calum’s dark eyes were boring into Michael’s green ones, the both of them wearing matching smirks as they stared each other down.

“I hate both of you,” Luke cut in, his two friend breaking eye contact to look at Luke. “Michael, you have people to serve,”

The blond gestured towards the line that was forming behind Luke and Calum. Michael groaned, he hated working.

“Alright, what do you two want?”

He made quick work of getting Luke and Calum their orders, “That will be $14.98.”

Both the boys started digging through their pockets, but Calum pulled out a twenty dollar bill quickly, “Don’t worry, I got it, bro,”

Luke smiled gratefully, and Michael could not let them have a nice moment.

“So nice of you to pay on the first date,”

Luke looked like he was about to go off again, but Calum calmly placed a large hand on the small of his back.

“Keep the change,” He said to Michael, “Buy yourself something nice,”

Michael watched with his mouth slightly agape in awe as he steered Luke over to a table and the two started eating. Calum was a little shit and Michael was so into it. He continued taking orders, doing his job and all that, but stealing glances over at Calum every few minutes until the pair left.

“Bye, Michael,” Calum said, waving at the boy behind the counter, his bracelets wiggling down his arm slightly. Luke had no problem leaving without goodbyes.

Michael liked the way his name sounded coming out of Calum’s plush mouth, in his weird, not quite Australian accent. That boy was probably going to be that death of him, but honestly, that was probably how Michael wanted to go.

A few hours later found Michael sitting in his bed, Luke softly snoring next to him. Michael's pale face was illuminated by the light of his phone, even on its lowest setting. He frowned at the text he'd just received. 

_Oops I have to go girlfriend is calling me_

Thomas had been flirting with him, right? He wasn’t being totally delusional?

But he had a girlfriend,  _they_ had a girlfriend. Michael still didn't even know Thomas' gender.

Michael squirmed a bit, putting his phone down. He never felt bad about helping people cheat before. Maybe this wasn’t even cheating. Maybe Thomas didn’t even like him. Maybe Michael was making this all up in his head.

Luke stirred next to him, peaking his blond head out from under the covers.

“Are you okay, Mikey?”

Michael glared at his friend, he didn’t need Luke’s shit right now. “Get the fuck out of my bed.”

Luke frowned, “Wha?” He was still kind of sleepy and it was only midnight.

“I _said_ , get out.”

Slowly, Luke pulled the covers off himself. He didn’t want to step on his friend’s toes right now, clearly he was in a bad mood. He got up and walked out of the room, looking back every once in a while, as if Michael would change his demeanor and it would all be a joke.

But that didn’t happen. The door quietly clicked shut and Michael pulled his blankets over himself, then rolled so he was cocooned in them. He didn’t need anybody’s shit right now. He didn’t need anything at all. All he needed was his blankets and probably some pizza.

Michael’s mood remained sour when he woke up and wandered out into the kitchen still wrapped in his covers.

“Hey!” Ashton started when he saw the walking bundle of blankets, “Why did you kick Luke out of bed last night?”

“Fuck off,”

“Why can’t you be consistently nice to Luke? He’s just a kid, Mike, he’s sensitive!”

Michael did his best to growl at Ashton but it mostly sounded like a slightly aggressive pur.

“Is this about that person you’ve been texting?”

“ _Fuck off_ ,” Michael repeated, passing Ashton and heading towards the coffee pot.

“No!” Ashton walked back in front of him, “You don’t get any coffee until you tell me what the hell wrong with you!”

“I don’t need your shit, Ashton! I’m punk rock! I’ll do whatever the fuck I want! Get out of my way!” Michael’s voice was mostly quiet with sleep but it raised occasionally as he ranted.

“What’s going on?” Luke walked out into the kitchen, wearing Ashton’s shirt and a pair of green underwear with toucans on it. He was holding Cat in his one hand and rubbing his eye with his other hand. His normally quiffed hair was half flat against his head and half sticking up.

“How can you be mean to that?” Ashton turned to Michael, pointing at Luke, who was now smiling softly as he poked Cat’s nose, “He’s like...a giant teddy bear!”

“I’m sorry, Luke.” Michael said flatly, still trying to get his coffee and also keep his blankets around his body.

“Wait, what?” Luke looked at his two friends, confused, “What happened?”

Ashton sighed, moving aside to let the grumpy boy get to the coffee pot, “Where did you even get underwear with toucans on it?”

Luke frowned, looking down at his legs. He pulled on the side of the underwear, looking at it briefly, “These are Calum’s,”

“What?!” Michael slammed down the coffee pot, the hot liquid inside sloshing about, “Calum has known you for a few months and you already have his underwear?!”

“And you expect us to believe that Calum is not your boyfriend?” Ashton joined in.

Luke let his head drop back in annoyance, not responding. Instead, he walked into the kitchen and towards the cereal cupboard.

“How did you even get his underwear?” Ashton continued.

“You aren’t allowed to have sex with Calum,” Michael insisted, “I’m calling dibs on him,”

“I’m _not_ having sex with Calum! I’m not _dating_ Calum!” Luke put the box of Cheerios down on the counter roughly, “I’m straight and Calum has a girlfriend!”

Michael and Ashton turned to frown at each other. Luke sighed and rubbed his eyes roughly with his fingers.

"You two, fuck, you're like, a broken record!"

Immediately after the words left his mouth, Luke's head tilted upwards, "Like a broken record..." He walked out of the kitchen, muttering to himself, "I like that..."

The Cheerios remained on the counter next to an empty bowl and Michael and Ashton remained confused and frowning at each other.

"He's a weird kid," Michael said, breaking the silence and taking the Cheerios for himself. The faint sound of the acoustic guitar came from Ashton's room.

"Stop being mean to Luke!"

"You were teasing him about Calum too!" As Michael ate his cereal, he tried to recognize [the tune](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLLEB4Ac3Hg) Luke was playing, but couldn't quite place it.

Ashton seemed to be stumped for a moment, his eyebrows furrowing, "I... it was all in good humor!"

The two cringed as Luke hit a sour note.

"Does Ashton have a little crush on little Lukey?" Michael asked with a laugh, "All those early morning grinding sessions getting to your head?"

"Hey, shut up and eat your cereal, yeah?"

Michael's mouth opened slightly in shock, the ends turned upwards into a smile. His voice raised in excitement, "You do!"

"Shh!" Ashton pressed a long finger to his lips, "Shut the fuck up!"

"This is _gold_!"

"Watch what you do, Clifford." Ashton warned, sounding oddly serious. Luke's music stopped as well, aiding to the seriousness, "Do you really want to mess with me right now?"

Michael frowned, Cat running up, as if on cue, to rub her head on his leg and remind him of everything his curly-haired friend had done for him recently. He stayed silent, continuing to eat his Cheerios.

Luke came back out soon after, now wearing a pair of skinny jeans and his old black Vans. He frowned and paused in the middle of ruffling up his quiff as he saw Michael, "Did you seriously finish the fucking Cheerios?!"

"You snooze, you lose," Michael replied, draining the last of the milk from the bowl into his mouth.

"I hate you guys!" Luke whined, stamping his foot, "Calum would never treat me like this!"

Surprisingly, Michael chose to stay silent. But Ashton couldn't help himself, "Why don't you go live with your precious boytoy instead then?"

"Fine!"

"Try not to miss us too much!" Ashton shouted after Luke as the blond walked out of the apartment.

"You're so weak," Michael commented, chuckling.

"Don't you have to go to work?"

"Not today,"

"Don't you have _something_ better to do?"

"Sheesh, if you want me out of your hair just say so, Irwie."

Ashton glared at his friend. Michael held up two hands in response, surrendering the fight early. He collected all the blankets he had dragged out and went to his room to change.

He ended up wearing a flannel shirt that he had ripped the sleeves off of over a shirt that might actually be Luke's. Whatever, he deserved it.

Michael frowned slightly when he spotted a blue bandana with white stars sitting on top of his dresser. He'd never noticed it before, it was probably Ashton's. He shrugged, picking it up to tie it around his head.

He pulled out his phone, opening his camera to check himself out. Jokingly, he pushed his lips out and held up his hand in the rock and roll sign before taking a picture. He laughed at himself, then went to his conversation with Thomas to send it to him.

Then Michael saw the last message and found himself right back in the funk he was in a few hours ago. He shook his head.

"This is fuckin' stupid," He muttered to himself. He wasn't going to let some dumb stranger leading him on mess up his whole life.

**2 cool 4 u**

He attached the picture and sent the message.

When Michael returned to the kitchen to leave the house, Ashton was no longer there. He decided to not fret over it, Ash was a big boy and could solve his problems on his own.

_You're a cutie pie_

For once Michael frowned at the two [frequently used emojis](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0088.png) attached to the message.

**I'm not cute I'm punk rock**

_Noo you're just a cute little ghost boy_

Michael frowned even more at the addition of a [heart emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0147.png) and the [ghost emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0520.png). He wasn't losing it, Thomas was totally flirting.

Somehow, Michael found himself at the old playground again. He climbed to the top of the, probably unstable, jungle gym, sitting on one of the plastic roofs.

**How did things go with your girlfriend last night?**

Maybe Michael could make Thomas uncomfortable enough into telling him more information. Or maybe he was fucking everything up and now Thomas was going to stop texting him.

_Not good_

At the end was a [sad emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0764.png) and a [frustrated emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0768.png).

**What's up?**

_Things have been weird for a while now... I think she's cheating on me_

**What makes you say that?**

Michael felt oddly good talking to Thomas about his issues. He was usually never the one who was collected and giving out advice.

_Idk just a feeling I guess... I've been writing[a song ](http://youtu.be/aXVRPp9iaEw?t=1m22s)about it that kind of explains things better_

**Any chance that you'll share some of that with me?**

_I guess..._

_Here's the chorus_

Michael stared at the three dots indicated that Thomas was typing. He was excited, songwriters are pretty much his weakness.

 _You know something I don't_  
 _It's not like you to be cold_  
 _Every night replayed over and over_  
 _You say things that I don't_  
 _You make me feel alone  
_ _Every night replayed over and over_

Michael read the words, trying to put a vague tune to them.

**That's some deep shit**

Michael cringed, maybe that wasn't the best response.

_What can I say I'm an emotional person_

He smiled, sensing the joking tone in the message. Michael didn't think he'd insulted Thomas accidentally yet. This was a new record for him, probably.

_But idk man it's like she's always saying that she's staying out like every other night and sometimes I wish I could just walk away but like... I feel like I can't leave her behind_

**Wow you /are/ an emotional person**

Michael felt so stupid, he slapped a hand over his bandana covered forehead. He wants to be able to tell Thomas that he's amazing and his words are beautiful and he is going to be a really successful songwriter one day but instead he is being a sarcastic dick.

_I get what you are trying to tell me thanks Michael_

He shut off his phone, feeling suddenly really dumb. How does this stranger get him more than Luke and Ashton ever have and he doesn't even know what gender they are. Michael climbed off the jungle gym, shoving his phone into his pocket.

He took a walk around the playground, ignoring the couple of times his phone buzzes. When he got to the jungle gym again, there was a group of four boys, maybe fifteen at the most. They all had long fringes dyed black and two of them had large gauges stretching out their earlobes. They were all passing around a cigarette, one of them coughing through every breath he took.

Michael suddenly felt really old and kind of washed up, "Shouldn't you kids be in school?" He called. 

The kid who had been coughing jumped up and looked very guilty. Two of them looked confused, probably at Michael's accent, the other one was scoffing at Michael.

"Fuck off, old man,"

"Do you even know any songs by the band on your shirt?"

The kid looked down at his black top, then his face scrunched up in confusion. He quickly shook it off and crossed his arms.

"Do you?"

Michael laughed, reaching over and taking the cigarette from them. He dropped it onto the ground and dug the toe of his boot into it.

"Stay in school, kids," He said with a wink, "Your emo band probably sucks and will never make it big. You'll just end up living with a cat and two guys who have a lot of sexual tension while working part time at an ice cream shop."

The boys looked horrified and uncomfortable. Michael chuckled, "Get to class." He patted one of their shoulders as they walked away, muttering to each other.

Michael shook his head, "Kids these days..." Then he squeezed his eyes shut tightly, "I'm eighteen, why am I acting like a crotchety old man?" He felt really dumb and he really hated how dumb he felt and he really hated everything, but mostly himself. Michael stared down at his hands, they were shaking slightly. He inspected the two little finger tattoos he had treated himself to when he'd gotten his first paycheck. They'd hurt like a bitch to get, but he liked them. The X on his middle finger and the anchor on his thumb didn't really have any sort of deep meaning to him, he just thought they were kind of cool.

He ran his nervous fingers through his hair, suddenly overwhelmed with an itch to dye it again. He was getting tired of the ghost jokes anyway.

"What the hell," He said quietly to himself, walking briskly out of the park and towards town. It was a normal, sunny day in Los Angeles, he was sweating under his bandana and he doesn't know how Ashton does it. He found the beauty shop fairly easily, this was a trek he'd made a couple times before.

He frowned at the prices, fun colors were always so much more expensive. All he could really afford was a small bottle of black. The lady at the register had bright pink hair and a ring hanging from the middle of her nose. She smiled politely at Michael but frowned at his hair and at his purchase.

"I know I might not be one to talk, but I'm a little concerned for the state of your hair," She finally spoke up as she took his money and handed him a bag.

Michael frowned, running a hand through the coarse strands, "Do you think I should give it a break?"

"Maybe a nice, deep conditioning," She smiled helpfully, but her eyes were still locked on his hair looking so sad. He smiled back, nodding slightly. 

As he exited the shop and started heading home, he realized that he didn't even really have an idea for what he was going to do with his purchase. He kind of wanted to do the [cool thing](http://31.media.tumblr.com/e6d007513a33f0c1fd181e61ff2e9448/tumblr_mlgr679dRY1qepprno1_500.jpg) that Jack Barakat was doing, but didn't want to copy it exactly. 

Which his how Michael found himself covered in black dye and looking like a weird reverse skunk. He didn't hate it though. He actually kind of liked it. He even pulled out his phone to take a selfie, sticking out his tongue and holding it at the traditional Myspace angle. He laughed at himself and sent it to Thomas.

**No more ghost jokes from you**

_How dare you I still had so many jokes_

The reply was instantaneous and ended with the [monkey covering its mouth](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0798.png) emoji. Then Michael's phone vibrated with a text from Luke. He looked at the words, slightly bemused.

_Are you home? I need to talk to you_

**Uh yeah??**

Michael sighed, looking at the black mess all over the bathroom. He could clean it up, or he could play FIFA.

Ten minutes later, the door slammed open. Michael looked up from his video game for a second to watch as a tall blond boy takes a seat on the couch. 

"Did you dye your hair?"

"Yup," He was focused entirely on the screen, where his character was shooting up a group of guys.

"Pause your damn game, Michael," 

Michael pouted, but obliged. "What did you need?"

"It's about that per-"

Michael's phone vibrating loudly cut Luke off. The pale boy dug a hand into his pocket and smiled at the message he had from Thomas.

_Hey I want to tell you about another[song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucT1uhITmCs) I wrote_

**Ooh yes I am all ears**

Michael starts texting back but he can see Luke being very visibly annoyed in his peripheral vision. 

"Are you serious?" Luke pulls out his phone and messes around with it for a moment before slamming it down on his lap. "This is unbelievable,"

_NO YOU CANT TELL HIM_

Michael frowned, his eyebrows furrowing. He is writing a response when another message comes.

_FUCK shit sorry sorry I sent that to the wrong person_

**Oh how the tables have turned**

He chuckled and Luke continued to huff next to him. The two typing away at their phones, Michael happily and Luke furiously.

"I can't fucking believe this is happening," The taller boy shook his head and got up off the couch.

"Didn't you have something to tell me?" Michael asked, still not looking away from the lyrics Thomas was sending him.

Luke pulled something out of the fridge and put it in the microwave, "It doesn't fuckin' matter,"

"Cool,"

**We could really use someone like you in the band**

_Oh?_

**Yeah me and the other guys don't really write much**

**I mean we're pretty young kids and we don't really have much life experience to write about**

_I don't really either honestly I mostly just make stuff up_

**At least you're good at it**

"I hate both of you," Michael vaguely heard Luke mutter as he sat back down and started eating the leftover pizza from a couple days ago. He made a questioning noise, but Luke didn't elaborate. It was probably something stupid. Luke always got salty about the dumbest things. He was just a lame teenager.

Michael stayed up pretty late texting Thomas, which ended up being a bad idea because he had work the next day. It was a pretty slow day, as Mondays at an ice cream shop go. He found himself falling asleep at his post a couple times. His coworker woke him up once or twice, rolling her eyes at him before turning back to her phone. 

"Hey, Pepe Le Pew," Michael jumped awake at the sound of a familiar voice walking up to the register. He rolled his eyes and flipped off the tan boy in front of him. Calum had a messenger bag slung over his shoulder.

"Shouldn't you be in school, kiddo?" He smirked, admiring how curly Calum's hair was today.

He crossed his arms, mock offended, "I'm the same age as you!" He chuckled, leaning his elbows on the counter and looking up at Michael, "Perks of being a senior, pretty much no classes,"

"But you abandoned poor Lukey,"

"I know, I feel bad, should I have asked him to skip with me?"

Michael shrugged, waving his hand, "Lucas is a lame-o anyway," 

"I love Luke," Calum started, rubbing his eyes, "But I'm so fucking tired and I need some quiet song-writing time right now,"

Michael raised his eyebrows, he'd only seen [one song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEuFpbtzzTs) that Calum and Luke had written together, "So, I'm guessing you don't want my company?"

Calum smiled, "How could I turn away such an adorable skunk boy?"

"Fuck you," Michael blushed, looking down to hide his face. He poked at the register keys, looking over at his coworker. 

"Your break isn't until 12:30," She insisted, eyes glued to her phone screen.

Michael rolled his eyes at her, looking at the clock on the wall, "I guess I'll join you in ten minutes," 

"Cool," Calum grinned, then he ordered his ice cream and set up camp at one of the tables scattered throughout the shop. Michael watched as he pulled out a notebook and pen from the small messenger bag. He quickly got sucked into his work, his ice cream melting beside him. Calum was super cute when he wrote, tapping his long fingers along the table and his feet along the ground and his pen along the notebook. Sometimes he got really excited about something and he slammed both of his feet on the ground and frantically wrote it, his teeth digging excitedly into his lip.

Maybe Michael spent a long amount of time dwelling on the tattoos that he could see on the boy's tan skin. He wondered if they meant anything, or if maybe he just thought they would look cool. He had this weird desire to know everything he could about Calum, which was kind of freaking him out. Michael was used to wanting to fuck people, but having genuine feelings wasn't something he did. Not since...

Michael glanced at the clock, 12:28. Good enough. Michael took his apron off and quickly walked over to the boy. He could feel his coworker glaring at him as she took his spot behind the register, but remained on her phone. 

As he sat down across from Calum, the other boy jumped. He looked confused for a second, like he'd just been broken out off a trance.

"Can I see?"

"Oh," Calum picked up the notebook and handed it to Michael, "Sure." He picked up his spoon and cup and played with the soupy ice cream inside. 

Michael looked at the worn out paper in front of him. Written at the top was "[EVERYTHING I WANT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf7yp0N174Q) !!!!" there was a litter of hearts and smiley faces. There were small doodles all throughout the margins and surrounding the words. Michael grinned as he read the words to the love song. It was cute.

"So, is this about your apparent girlfriend that is keeping you and Luke apart?" Michael asked, pushing the notebook back over to Calum. The other boy looked confused for a moment, his plump lips turned down into a frown. Then he shook his head, as if realizing something.

"Right," He nodded, "Uh, no, it's...not..."

Michael frowned, "Well, is it about Luke?" He laughed, as if it was a joke, but it wasn't a joke. 

"No, no," Calum laughed, "No, Luke, no,"

"What's wrong with Luke?" Michael asked, suddenly protective of his friend.

"Nothing! Luke is great! Luke is hot! But Luke and I both have our attention focused on other people!"

Michael scrunched together his eyebrows, "Well, if it isn't your girlfriend...?"

Calum sighed, putting his head in his hands and digging his hands into his curly, black hair, "Things are weird with her, I'm already writing a different song about her,"

"What's wrong?"

"I think she's..." Calum trailed off, then looked away from the boy across from him. He seemed to choose his words carefully, "I think things are ending with her,"

"Because of this other person?"

"Because of a lot of things," He sighed, "Including this other person, I guess..."

Michael looked down at his wrist, fiddling with the many bracelets he had on, "Well, I hope things work out," He looked up and his green eyes met Calum's dark brown ones, "Between you and your girlfriend and this other person..."

One side of Calum's mouth quirked up into a small smile, "Me too, Michael," He looked down at the notebook, reading over his words. He looked conflicted for a moment. Michael wanted him to not look like that.

"Did you say Luke likes someone else?"

"Did he not tell you?" 

"No!" Michael was offended, he's known Luke since grade 9, he deserved to know the blond's crushes.

"Oh man, I'm not getting into this," Calum said with a laugh.

Michael's frown deepened, "No, now you  _have_ to tell me!"

"I don't  _have_ to do anything!"

"Calum!" Michael shouted, alerting the attention of his coworker and the family that had just walked in, "The fate of the world depends on you telling me who Luke has a crush on!"

"If he wanted you to know, he'd tell you!" Calum giggled, obviously enjoying knowing something Michael didn't.

"I will make out with you if you tell me,"

Calum faltered for a second, but quickly recovered, "What makes you think I want that?"

"Look at me," Michael waved his hand over his face and then under his chin, as if presenting himself, "I'm adorable, you said so yourself,"

"Yeah, adorable," Calum reached over and tried to pinch Michael's cheek, but the other boy moved before he could, "Not make out worthy."

"Fuck you!" The mother of the family gasped and attempted to cover all the ears of her four kids. Michael's coworker attempted to set him on fire with her eyes. He ignored them all, laughing at Calum, "I'm perfectly make out worthy! Get out of my face! Tell me who Luke likes!"

"It's Ashton!" Calum immediately regretted everything about his entire life.

Michael's mouth dropped open, "Are you fucking serious?!"

The mother huffed and grabbed all of her kids, pulling them out of the shop without ordering. Two of the kids started crying and Michael almost felt bad but then he remembered that his best friends _both_ fucking liked each other.

"No!" Calum backtracked, "No, I was kidding!"

"I cannot fucking believe!" Michael shouted, shaking his head, "Ashton and Luke have fucking crushes on each other! This is what I fucking live with!"

"Clifford!" He heard a female voice shout. He turned to glare at his coworker, who was glaring at him. Their glares met and had a small battle that she quickly won. "How about you get back to work and tell your date to stop scaring away customers!"

"Excuse you," Calum spoke up, "I'm not the one cursing up a storm, I'm a paying customer!"

"You're loitering," She crossed her arms, raising a perfectly plucked eyebrow, "Why don't you get out before I call the police?"

"What a bitch..." Michael shook his head, turning back to Calum, who was laughing.

"I'll see you later?" He asked, packing up his things and throwing them into his bag. 

"I guess," Michael replied, grabbing Calum's trash for him and throwing it into the receptacle behind him. 

"Hey," Calum placed a hand on Michael's chest before he could go back behind the counter, "Don't tell Luke I told you. He trusted me with that and I don't want to hurt him."

Michael smiled, "You've totally won band approval,"

"I can't wait to be one of Luke's hus _bands_ ," Calum replied with a smirk, "Though I guess Ashton is going to be his actual  _husband_." _  
_

"It's going to be so gross if I have to hear them, like, doin' it in the next room," Michael scrunched up his face in disgust.

Calum giggled and Michael loved the sound.

"You should be one of Luke's husbands, like," He shook his head at himself, "I mean, you should be in the band, we need someone like you,"

Calum frowned, "I don't... I don't know, I don't think so, Michael," He moved to leave.

"What? Why?"

"I just, don't...think, that it's the right thing...to do... I don't know..." He pushed open the door, the bell on top jingling, "I'll see you later,"

Michael was left alone in the ice cream shop, confused and with his coworker breathing fire down his neck. What the fuck was Calum on about? Not only that, but what was he going to do about Luke and Ashton? It's not like he could just leave something like that alone. He was a nosy fucker who couldn't mind his own business.

**My life is in shambles**

Michael sent the text to Thomas as he boarded the bus to get home. 

_Oh yeah?_

**My bandmates want to fuck each other but they don't know that the other one feels the same way**

_Meanwhile you're dating the cat_

Michael's mouth opened slightly in shock, but he was still grinning as he stared at the [two laughing emojis](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0741.png) at the end.

**Oh my god fuck you! You're no help at all!**

_I'm sorry what are you going to do?_

**Obviously try to get them together duh**

_But like what if it doesn't work?_

**What do you mean?**

How could it not work? Luke and Ashton would be great together, they've known each other forever. They already live together and are used to each other's annoying quirks. It was going to be perfect and they were going to end up getting married and they would fight over who got Michael as their best man.

_Like what if things don't work out and they break up and ruin the band_

Michael hadn't even considered that, but it is always an option. Every relationship was going to end in either a break up or marriage, that was the way the world worked.

_I'm sorry don't listen to me I'm projecting my problems onto you_

That made Michael even more confused.

**What are your problems?**

_It's nothing I can't talk right now I'm doing homework_

Michael could tell that Thomas was deflecting, obviously. But he wasn't about to ruin everything with the stranger just because he was nosy. He exited out of the messaging app and played one of the mind-numbing games he'd downloaded until the bus got to his stop.

When he entered his apartment, he could see the back of Luke and Ashton's blond heads as they cuddled on the couch. This wasn't an unusual sight to see for anyone in the house, cuddling was a frequent activity in this apartment. But now it was so different, for Michael at least. Luke and Ashton both didn't know that the person they liked also liked them. It was so stupid, was Michael honestly going to let them sit around being stupid for much longer?

"What are you staring at?" Ashton spoke up, he'd turned around to look at Michael, who was still standing in the doorway. "You jealous, Clifford?"

Michael shut the door, stepping into the apartment and slipping off his combat boots. "Yeah, that's it. You caught me, Irwin,"

He walked up, wedging himself in between Luke and the arm of the love seat. He wrapped his arms around the tall boy.

"I'm secretly in love with Luke,"

Ashton shot Michael a warning look from behind Luke's back, but the other boy just raised his eyebrows in response. A questioning look, a "what are you gonna do about it?" look.

"Luke is mine, thanks," Ashton exclaimed, grabbing the youngest boy and pulling him close. Luke allowed himself to be manhandled.

"Don't fight," He said, nonchalantly, his attention still focused on the zombie movie playing on the television.

"Luke loves me the most!"

"Wow," Ashton's voice raised, "Who's the one that Luke grinds up on at night?"

"Okay, can we forget about that?" Luke's quiet voice spoke up. Both the boys flanking him looked down at him, his cheeks were red and his eyebrows were crinkled together.

"I'm sorry, Lukey," Ashton apologized, pulling Luke in tighter.

Michael rolled his eyes, "So weak," He got up from the couch, "Both of you."

He received two bemused looks in return, but he just laughed them off. He turned and walked to his room, leaving Luke and Ashton confused and cuddling.

Later that night, Michael woke up to the all too familiar feeling of a cold lip ring pressing to his neck. Cold hands and feet burrowed in under Michael's blankets and pressed to his warm body. He groaned, feeling Luke's bracelets pressing into his side uncomfortably. 

"Why are you always so fuckin' cold?" He mumbled groggily as Luke pulled himself in close to Michael.

Luke's chapped lips moved against Michael's neck, "What did you mean? Earlier, with Ash?"

Michael sighed, finding his hand and pulling it out from under the blankets to rub at his face.

"Mmm...what?"

"Did...did Calum tell you something?"

It was dark in the room except for the soft moonlight leaking in from Michael's window. Luke moved away from his friend's neck to look at his face. He looked small and worried and young and Michael never ever wanted anyone to ever hurt him.

"Calum didn't have to tell me anything,"

Luke frowned and pressed in close to Michael again. He let out a small whine.

"Do you think he knows?"

"Ash?"

Luke hummed against Michael's throat, nodding slightly.

"No, he's dumb and oblivious,"

"Mikey?"

"Yeah?"

"I've...never liked a boy before..."

Michael wanted to cry and shield Luke from everything in the world.

"Really?"

"I mean like, maybe in passing...but never, like, seriously,"

"Do you seriously like Ashton?"

"I don't know," Luke mumbled sadly, elongating the last vowel sound. "I don't know because, like, I think he's hot but I also think that, like, Calum is hot and also, like, Alex Gaskarth, and you,"

"Yes," Michael hissed in victory causing Luke to let out a small laugh. Michael liked seeing him smile.

"But I want to, like, kiss Ashton a lot and also like, hang out with him and maybe hold his hand. And I don't want to do that with you or Calum. And sometimes when he, like, cuddles me I get all weird and nervous..."

"Yeah, you sound like you have a dumb crush on Ash,"

"I just...don't know what to do. I don't know how to like a guy, I could barely handle getting a girlfriend,"

"You're a catch, Lukey," Michael whispered into his friend's flattening quiff, "If anything happens, Ash will be lucky to have you. Don't fret over it, yeah? Just let things happen,"

"I'm sorry I yelled at you a lot about Calum,"

"Hey, it's cool," He pressed a quick kiss in Luke's blond locks, "I'm sorry for messing with you about it," He thought for a moment, the silence of night making his thoughts run wild, "I'm sorry for any time I hurt your feelings, yeah? I love you,"

"I love you too, Mikey," Luke's voice was drowsy and he punctuated his sentence with a yawn. Michael pulled the covers over the two boys and  snuggled closer to Luke.

Then morning came and he was once again reminded of why he hates sleeping with Luke.

"You're a piece of shit," He mumbles into his pillow as Luke fails to delicately climb out of bed. He is too big and clumsy for his own good.

"You love me,"

"No, I don't, you're a piece of shit,"

Luke giggled, used to Michael's morning grumpiness. He quietly left the room and Michael was already back asleep.

He woke up a couple times but didn't really feel like existing so he forced himself back to sleep. Finally, a knock on his bedroom door roused him completely.

"Fuck off!"

"Is that anyway to treat a guest?" Came a less familiar voice from the other side of the door. It took Michael a moment to process it.

Why the fuck is Calum here? Doesn't Luke know better than to have company over this early? Shouldn't they be in school? What time is it?

Michael pulled his face off his pillow, which was damp with drool and sweat. He reached blindly all over his bed, searching for his phone. It was at 29% and it claimed to be 3 in the afternoon.

Well fuck.

Groggily, Michael got out of bed, wrapping his covers around himself. He walked to his door and opened it to find Calum grinning at him.

"Hey sleeping beauty," He greeted with a laugh, bravely reaching to ruffle Michael's already quite ruffled hair. In the back, Luke and Ashton watched in shock as Michael didn't rip off Calum's arm.

"Why is he here?" He directed the question at Luke, but kept eye contact with Calum.

"He came to jam with us!" Ashton answered when Luke didn't.

Luke nodded, "I think we should add Calum to the band,"

"I don't," Calum piped up, "For the record."

"Why not?" Michael asked, walking out of his room and leading the rest of the group out into the living room. He layed down on the couch, taking it all for himself.

"I don't know, I don't feel right about it..."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Ashton asked, taking a seat on Michael's legs and causing the other boy to let out a loud whine.

Calum wasn't looking anyone in the eye, just fiddling with his fingers and standing awkwardly in the middle of the living room. Cat ran up to Calum and nuzzled into his leg, purring softly. The tan boy giggled and bent down to pick her up. He cooed at her, scratching her little white head. Then Luke came into the room wielding their guitar and thrust it towards Calum.

"But, cat," He said, pouting at Luke, not wanting to let go of Cat just yet. Luke shushed him and took the cat out of his hands, replacing her with the guitar. Luke took a seat on the ground and held Cat in between his legs.

"...Guys, I don't know..." Calum said, strumming the strings lightly.

"Play [Over and Over](http://youtu.be/aXVRPp9iaEw?t=1m22s)!" Luke suggested.

Michael hummed, that sounded familiar. Did Luke want Calum to cover something for them? He'd rather hear an original.

Calum looked paler than usual, sending daggers in Luke's direction.

"I don't think so..."

"Come on!" Luke insisted with a smirk, "That's my favorite. I think it's one of the best things you've ever written!"

Luke and Calum were sharing weird facial expressions, as if having their own silent conversation.

"What's going on here?" Ashton asked suspiciously, jealousy tainting his words.

"Come on, Cal,"

"Yeah," Michael contributed, "Let's go!" He really wanted to know where he'd heard that title before. He couldn't remember for the life of him.

Calum took a deep breath before strumming the guitar. His voice was shaky at first, but then he locked eyes with Michael and began to sing more confidently.

"You know something I don't,"

Michael let the words wash over him, green eyes boring into Calum's own. He knew those words, but he didn't know that tune. He didn't even know where he knew the words. He racked his brains, trying to recall.

"Every night replayed over and over," Calun finished, ceasing his singing. Everyone watched silently as Calum stared Michael down, waiting for him to realize.

Then Michael did. He realized. Calum was singing the song Thomas sent him. Calum was Thomas. And Luke fucking knew. Ashton probably knew! Everyone was making a big joke out of Michael.

He kicked his feet, jostling Ashton off of him. He unraveled himself from his blanket cocoon and stormed out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

Michael was only in his socks, a pair of sweatpants, and a tank top, so he couldn't exactly go far. He sat down in the lush grass that surrounded their apartment complex, bringing his knees in close to his chest.

All this fucking time, Calum had been Thomas. And Calum had known the entire time, from the selfies Michael had sent him. Who the fuck did Calum think he was?

Michael had told Thomas really personal things, things he hadn't even told Luke or Ashton. He felt betrayed.

"Hey, Mikey." Ashton's voice was soft as he came up to sit next to Michael. The younger boy scooted away from his friend, hiding his face in his arms. He felt dumb and he didn't want anyone to look at him.

"Come on, Michael," Ashton placed a large hand on his back, "Tell me what happened because I have no idea what's going on," He laughed a little, trying to lighten the mood.

"I'm _sure_ ," Michael said incredulously.

"I don't!"

"Calum's a fuckin' lying dick who is making a joke of me! That's what fucking happened!"

Michael's face was blushing deep red when he finally looked up at Ashton, who was just confused.

"I don't understand,"

"That person I've been texting has fucking been Calum the entire time!"

Ashton frowned, "Shouldn't you be happy? Now that you know who he is and you like him?"

"Shut the fuck up, Ashton!" Michael put his head down again, "He was fucking playing me!"

"I just think that maybe you have it all wrong,"

Michael ignored his friend. He didn't need people who weren't on his side, which was obviously the right side.

"I'm just saying that when you ran out, Calum looked absolutely devastated and like, regretful."

"He fucking should be,"

"Come on, Mikey,"

"Why don't you go away from me and go fuck Luke, huh?"

Ashton frowned, eyebrows furrowing in anger, "You know that Luke doesn't want me,"

"Yes he fucking does, you idiot." Michael focused all his attention on a blade of grass, "He fucking told me and fucking Calum,"

Ashton stood up, walking back inside quickly. Michael felt guilt tickling at the bottom of his gut. A few minutes later, Calum stormed out.

"What the fuck did you do?!"

Michael just looked up at him, not replying.

"Why did you have to go messing around with Luke and Ash, man? Just because you're miserable doesn't mean everyone else has to be."

"What do you mean miserable?" Michael frowned, "I should have gotten them together,"

"Luke is pissed that you told him and he pissed at me for telling you!" Calum shook his head, "Luke trusted you, he's sensitive! Why do you have to do this stuff to him?"

"Fuck you, Calum! You don't know me, you don't know anything!" Michael stood up, pointing an angry finger at Calum's chest, "You think you can just fucking play around with me and pretend to be someone else and act like you have been here forever! You've been here for, like, a month! I've known Luke for years! Get the fuck out of my face!"

"I wasn't ever pretending to be someone else, Michael! Thomas was entirely me!"

"Fuck off, I don't need you in my life,"

"Fine," Calum said, backing away, "Whatever. I'll just go,"

Michael sighed, running his fingers through his hair. At least he knew Thomas wasn't a twelve year old girl.

He stared at the door to his apartment, terrified of the time bomb within. Slowly, Michael opened it, the hinges creaking ominously. Ashton was watching TV and Luke was in the kitchen. Neither of them acknowledged Michael, or each other.

The guitar was still in the living room, sitting on the floor where Calum had been standing. Michael went to his room. He almost pulled out his phone to text Thomas, but then he remembered.

He groans, throwing his phone onto his bed. The device bounces off and lands on the floor, but Michael doesn't care. He flops down onto his bed next, his blankets are still out in the living room. But he doesn't want to risk going to get them.

He pouts at his ceiling.

Was he being dumb? He was probably being dumb. Michael had a tendency to be dumb and irrational in the heat of the moment. He shook his head, covering his face with his hands. There was really no use being mad at Calum. It's not like he even did anything that bad, Michael was just weird and he didn't like when things were happening behind his back. He didn't like being unaware.

Michael pulled up his phone, unlocking it and going into his messages. From there, he changed Thomas to Calum, still keeping the [cute little emoji](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0088.png) that Calum loved so much. Because, what the hell?

**Is this why you didn't want to join the band?**

Michael held his phone up above his face, waiting for Calum to read the message. He moved to tap the screen a couple times when it started falling asleep, but then his arm started falling asleep. Then he dropped his phone onto his face and he pretty much knew that was going to happen from the moment he held his phone up above his face. He sat there for a while, with his phone on top of his face. He jumped when he felt it vibrate against his nose.

_I mean kind of. I felt bad because I was sort of lying to you but also I didn't want to join because I wanted to date you and I think interband relationships are bad_

**So past tense?**

The response took a moment, Michael could see the three dots telling him Calum was typing coming up and going away over and over again.

_What?_

**You wanted to date me, past tense**

_You're so stupid_

Michael smiled, he could never stay mad at Calum probably. He was too super cute for Michael to stay mad at him.

**I'll take that as a yes :(**

_Shut up I still want to date you_

**That's good we don't need our own drama when we have Luke and Ash to deal with**

_I'm not butting into their relationship anymore than I already have.  You're on your own for that one bro_

**:((( I don't need you anyway**

**Btw you're joining the band**

_I'm thinking I'm not going to win any argument against this?_

**You're smart /and/ cute ;)**

_But what if things get weird and I ruin the band_

**Shh**

_Don't just shh me_

**Stop worrying we'll make things work don't fret**

**My pet**

_Get the fuck out of here_

Michael ventured into his emoji keyboard and sent Calum the [kissy face](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0761.png) and the [eggplant](http://pix.iemoji.com/superbigmoji/0265.png).

He grinned at his phone, he had high hopes for himself and Calum. Michael had never really wanted any kind of real relationship, but this was going to be nice, he thought.

For the first time in what felt like a while, Michael slept alone. No cold blond boy crawled into bed with him and pressed himself all up against Michael. He wasn't woken up at 5 in the morning by said blond boy failing to smoothly get out of bed.

He was, however, woken up at 10 in the morning by tiny paws pressing into his chest. Michael opened his eyes and found himself face to face with Cat. Her little tongue poked out and licked a tiny stripe on Michael's nose. He cooed, bringing his hands up to rub at her ears. She purred, closing her eyes.

Michael didn't need to leave his bedroom and actually exist or anything. He only needed to stay in here with Cat. He didn't need to deal with his dumb friends and his maybe boyfriend who doubts them and might still have a girlfriend.

"Why do things happen to me, Cat?"

Cat did not have an answer, but she did nuzzle in closer, which was enough for Michael.

Then she was jumping up and off him in shock when Ashton started slamming on his drums in the next room. Michael hadn't heard him drum in a while, they'd been putting off band practices. Normally, Michael would yell at the other boy for drumming at 10 in the morning, but he kind of deserved it right now.

He ended up walking out to the kitchen, where coffee was lukewarm and waiting for him. He enjoyed his drink while he enjoyed the sound of his talented friend. Listening to Ashton kind of lit a fire under Michael, reminding him of why they wanted to do the band thing. They were honestly all pretty talented, Michael knew they were, they had skipped so much school to practice. The move to America pretty much did the opposite of what they wanted, making them less enthusiastic about the band rather than helping the band take off.

He barely noticed when the drumming stopped, too wrapped up in his own head. He did notice when Ashton walked out and looked shocked to see Michael up so early.

"You good, man?" He asked, raising his mug then regretting it because he probably just looked stupid. Why did he do that?

Ashton nodded slightly, a thin sheen of sweat coated his forehead, "Yeah,"

"What happened with..." Michael was about to ask about Luke, but then decided that maybe not quite yet, "Yesterday?"

"I mean, nothing...I guess," Ashton sighed, running his long fingers through his sweaty hair, "Luke was pretty pissed at you and Calum and we both sort of forgot about the rest of the problem, I think,"

The other boy frowned, "Are you telling me that you and Luke have not even discussed the fact that you like each other?"

Ashton shrugged, looking through cabinets aimlessly just to have something to do.

"Ash!"

The curly-haired boy jumped, looking sheepishly at Michael, "I don't know! It just, he was really mad! I didn't want to bother him with my feelings afterwards!"

"It's not just _your_ feelings, Ashton!" He put his coffee down, to prove how serious the situation was, "He likes you back!"

"...Are you sure?"

"Positive!" 

"I don't know..." Ashton trailed off, hazel eyes fixed on the floor. Cat came scampering in and he quickly swept her up. Michael stared as he whispered apologies for scaring her with his drums.

"I can't believe this,"

"What?"

"It's like you don't even care!" Michael rolled his eyes, "You like Luke and Luke likes you and you could be making out with him right now but instead you're cuddling the cat _that you didn't even want_ and not doing anything _at all_ about Luke!"

Ashton put the cat back down, "I don't know what you want me to do!" He held his arms out in defeat.

"Anything!" Michael exclaimed, "Like, literally anything! Unless you don't actually care about dating Luke,"

"I do!" Ashton was quick to say, "I do! I want to date him! I was jealous when he was talking about Calum! I just, don't know what to do anymore! I am still having trouble believing that Luke actually likes me!"

Michael sighed, running a hand through his hair, "Just, trust me, man. He does, he  _really_ does." _  
_

"I still don't know what to do..."

"You should do something cool," Michael suggested, "He deserves it. Luke puts up with a lot of our shit,"

"Excuse you! The only shit Luke "puts up with" is yours," He said, raising his hands to put literal air quotes on his words, "Luke loves my shit!"

Michael raised his eyebrows, trying not to laugh at Ashton's choice of words.

"Whatever! I don't need to take this from you!"

He wasn't used to seeing his friend so flustered, that was usually Luke's job. Michael quite liked this side of Ashton. He crossed his eyes and grinned, just staring as Ashton got more and more panicky.

"You're putting so much pressure on me, Michael!" Ashton said, hysterically.

"I'm just trying to help you get a boyfriend!"

"Maybe I don't want your help, huh?" Ashton exclaimed, "Maybe I don't even want to date Luke!"

Michael shook his head, his eyebrows scrunching together, "Okay, you need to take a moment to think about things." He picked up his coffee and turned to walk back to his room, "You talk to me when you're ready,"

He sighed, he just wanted his friends to be happy.

**Ash sucks**

_Are you cheating on me already?_

Michael snorted, his mood improving quickly.

**Not like that you dork. He doesn't know how to ask Luke out so he is doing nothing**

_Can't you stay out of this whole situation?_

**Noo I am nosy and I want my friends to be happy**

For a while, Calum didn't reply. It was making Michael anxious quickly. When he got the response, he jumped, quickly unlocking his phone to read it.

_I'll be over in a few minutes to help_

Michael smirked, if Calum was already this whipped, dating him was going to be fun. A few minutes later, as promised, Calum was knocking on the door to the apartment.

He walked in, setting his bag down on the couch and pulling out his tattered songwriting notebook.

"I'm thinking Ash can serenade him," He suggested, flipping through the pages, "Luke will love that. I didn't know if Ashton had any sort of songwriting experience or anything so I figured I could just lend him a hand,"

Michael grinned, moving to look over Calum's shoulder. He saw a lot of unfamiliar words, some with big, deep cross marks all over the pages, frustration evident.

"Oh, what about this?" Michael stopped Calum, pointing at the page that had "[EVERYTHING I WANT](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf7yp0N174Q) !!!!" written on the top, "I remember you showed me this. It's super cute, Luke will melt!"

Calum laughed nervously, "I don't know," He tried to turn the page, but Michael kept his finger firmly on the page, preventing him.

"Why not?"

"It's just," He looked down at the ground, a blush barely evident on his cheeks as he tried not to smile.

"Oh," Michael tilted his head, "Did you write it about...your...girlfriend?" He really didn't want to mention her, mostly Michael wanted to avoid the topic of Calum's girlfriend entirely.

"What?!" Calum looked at him with disbelief, "No, I already told you I didn't! We broke up a while ago! Ugh, no, gross!"

"Well how am I supposed to know?!" Michael asked, offended.

"It's about you, you idiot!"

"What?!" Now Michael was in disbelief, thinking back to when he saw Calum writing the song, "But,"

"You're honestly so dumb," Calum shook his head, but he couldn't hold back the smile on his face, "I don't even know why I like you,"

"Or why I'm apparently everything you want?" Michael asked, a shit-eating grin taking over his face. He placed his hand dramatically on his chest looking off to the side. He giggled and Calum joined in quickly.

"What's going on out here?"

Ashton was walking out into the living room, his cajon under his arm and his fedora on his head.

"What could be going on with you and Luke if you'd stop being dumb," Michael answered, wrapping an arm around Calum and pulling him close. The other boy just laughed, placing a hand on Michael's chest to keep his balance.

"I like your hat, Ashton," Calum said with a cute smile.

Ashton's eyes lit up, but Michael was quick to ruin the moment, "Don't encourage him."

"My hat is cool, fuck you, Michael!" He touched his hat defensively, "I like Calum better,"

"I like him better too," Michael said, turning to look at the boy in his arms.

Calum looked down, blushing, "Aww,"

Ashton pretended to gag, placing his cajon on the ground and taking a seat on top of it. "I'm just going to drum over top of your gross coupleness,"

"No," Calum pushed away from Michael, ignoring as he pouted, "I have a plan to get you Luke!"

Ashton sighed, tapping the side of his cajon, "Guys,"

"Okay, shut up!" Michael exclaimed, "I'm not letting you ruin this! You like Luke and Luke likes you and you guys are going to kiss, god damnit!"

Calum looked shocked by the outburst, but Ashton looked like he expected it.

"But..."

"But what?!"

"What if I hurt him?!"

Michael frowned in confusion, "Do you plan on it?"

"No!" Ashton shook his head furiously, waving his hands, "No, of course not!"

"Then what's the problem?"

"I'm scared, okay!" Ashton sighed, "Luke's the little baby and his mom is probably going to kill me for wanting to deflower her precious boy and I don't want to hurt him and relationships typically lead to hurt!"

"But it doesn't have to," Calum suddenly spoke up, "I mean," He got nervous when both boys turned to look at him, "You can prevent that from happening. You might have to work at it, but that's what it's all about, right?"

"I can't wait to have you in the band," Michael grinned. He grabbed Calum by the hand and tugged him in close. He was planning on kissing him dramatically and romantically, but Calum sort of stumbled from the force of Michael pulling him and his lips just ended up pressing awkwardly to Calum's hair, his teeth almost cutting into his forehead.

"I'm glad I was here to experience this," Ashton commented between giggles. Even Calum was laughing, rubbing his head as Michael grumpily crossed his arms.

"So much for my romance,"

Calum laughed and pulled Michael close, in a much gentler fashion, connecting their lips sweetly.

"Alright, that's enough of that," Ashton raised his voice when Michael deepened the kiss, holding Calum tight against him. The tanned boy tried to pull away, smiling against Michael's lips, but he couldn't escape Michael's hold.

"Come on, guys," Ashton whined, stomping his feet lightly, "You're supposed to help me woo Luke!"

"Busy," Michael mumbled, not breaking the kiss. Calum giggled, finally managing to detach himself from Michael.

"Come on," He said with a laugh, "You owe this to Luke,"

Michael crossed his arms, "I don't owe anything to Luke." Calum raised his thick eyebrows and Michael sighed, "Fine,"

He was actually just as whipped.

"Okay, so," Calum clapped his hands together before handing Ashton his notebook, "I'm gonna teach you this song. But I've only got a rough feel for the music and it's all guitar," He paused, "Do you know guitar?"

Ashton's lip twitched downward awkwardly, "Do I have to do it solo? I'm a band person, not a solo artist,"

"We could accompany you," Michael said, excitedly, "Perfect way to wheedle Calum into the band!"

Calum frowned slightly but Ashton was just as excited as his friend, "Yes! I can come up with a beat for it!" He tapped the side of his cajon proudly.

"Harmonies!" Michael exclaimed, rushing to Ashton's room to grab the guitar in there. He pushed it into Calum's hands, "You, sing!"

Calum sighed but started plucking out a rough tune on the guitar, "They can say what they say,"

As he sang, Michael took in the words greedily, knowing they were about him. As Calum finished the second verse, Michael jumped in, trying to feel out a harmony.

The two smiled at each other as their voices mixed, Ashton idly drumming between them, feeling a bit like the third wheel in an intimate moment.

"Alright!" After few hours of singing and working the drums into the song, Ashton glanced at the clock, "Luke will be home from school any moment now!"

"Wait, why aren't you in school?" Michael asked Calum, an amused lilt in his words.

Calum smiled innocently, "I mean, you needed me,"

"I texted you at, like, 10,"

"I knew you were going to need me," Calum snarked, "Special boyfriend powers," He tapped his heart.

"You guys have been dating for, like, five seconds," Ashton commented with a grimace, "You can't have developed powers already."

"What do you know about boyfriend powers, anyway?" Michael asked, crossing his arms.

"I've been a boyfriend!"

"Only to girls!" Michael countered.

"It's not as strong with hereros," Calum agreed, nodding and attempting to look serious, but a giggle escaped his lips.

"Fuck you guys!" Ashton said, chuckling alone with Calum, "You're discriminating against me!"

Then the sound of the door clicking open brought the three boys back to reality. Luke walked in, confusion immediately evident on his face.

"What are you doing here, Cal? Why weren't you in school?" He asked, frowning, "Are you guys already stealing him from me?"

"You better watch your back, Luke," Ashton said, pointing at both Michael and Calum, who were standing very close together, "He's pretty much already been stolen,"

"Are you serious?" Luke whined, half-joking and half-genuinely annoyed.

Michael sighed, "I'll make it up to you eventually, probably,"

"Of course," Luke put his bag down, walking further into the apartment, "What's going on?" He asked, looking at the cajon and guitar as he took a seat on the couch, "Are you guys replacing me with Calum?" He laughed, but there was no humor in it.

Michael frowned, he didn't like this side of Luke. He wanted to get protective, but _he_ was the one that made Luke this upset. He sighed, not knowing what to do with himself. Michael then decided that the best course of action was to fling himself on top of the blond boy.

Luke groaned at the force of Michael's body hitting his, rolling his eyes. He was supposed to smile, but he didn't.

"I'm sorry, Lukey," Michael said, his voice muffled from his face being pressed to Luke's chest. "I'm dumb and mean and I don't deserve to have you in my life. I'm sorry that I always do things,"

"No," Luke shook his head, placing his hand on Michael's back. "I know the way you are,"

Michael interrupted him quickly, "No! Don't make excuses for me! I'm a bad friend and you deserve better,"

"Yeah, I do," Luke grinned, "But I want to be your friend,"

He pulled Michael into a hug that lasted a little longer than necessary. Calum and Ashton let out a chorus of "aww"s from behind them.

"Alright," Ashton spoke up after a few awkward moments, "I'm the one who is supposed to be wooing Luke right now,"

"What?" Luke asked as Michael got up off him.

"Shh," He said, pressing his finger to Luke's lips, "Just accept it,"

"Accept what?"

"Lucas Hemmings!" Ashton exclaimed, throwing his arms out with bravado. Calum started softly playing the guitar, "Uh..." He faltered, his arms falling, "I didn't have time to prepare a speech. Uh, sometimes I want to kiss you! Most times, actually. Most times I want to kiss you! Yeah, so...yeah,"

He took a seat on his cajon and starting tapping out the beat they created. As he sang, he kept his eyes shut or away from Luke. Ashton was always the less confident singer of the group. But when Calum joined in to harmonize, he got more into it.

"I just wanna call you mine," Ashton finished with Calum and Michael backing him up, looking Luke straight in the eyes.

There was a moment of silence and all four boys baked in it.

"I can't believe you're asking me out by serenading me with a song Calum wrote for Michael," Luke finally said, his smile contrasting his annoyed words.

Ashton let out the breath he'd been holding, "So, is that rejection I hear?"

"Of course not," Luke rolled his eyes, still beaming, "Come here,"

Ashton beamed back at him. The two boys sat on the couch, all white teeth and dimples and shiny eyes. Michael almost wanted to throw up, but also he wanted to swoon.

"We'll just, leave you alone," Calum said, nudging Michael harshly towards his bedroom.

Michael sat down on his bed as soon as he entered his room, pulling Calum down with him. The two cuddled like they'd known each other forever and not like they had just recently started dating and sort of met by a weird mistake.

"This is nice," Michael commented. Calum hummed in agreement.

"I'm kind of scared,"

"What do you mean?"

"I just," Calum paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, "I've already said all this. What if everything goes wrong and the band is ruined and we all end up hating each other an-"

"Nooo, stop," Michael whined, pressing his hand to Calum's mouth. "Stop worrying about the future and focus on right now,"

"I don't know if I can do that," Calum wiggled out of Michael's grasp, putting distance between them before sitting up.

"This is where we differ," Michael pouted up at the other boy.

"I want to date you," Calum said, turning to look Michael in the eyes, "I do. But I don't want to mess things up,"

Michael groaned, "You and Ash are _both_ so stupid. Learn to take some risks! How will you ever get anywhere in life otherwise?"

"This is why I liked being your mystery text buddy," Calum sighed, running his fingers through his dark hair, "There was little to no risk involved. Almost nothing to mess up. If I hurt you, I could just forget about it easily,"

"Who the hell did you hurt so bad to make you feel this way?"

"No one!" Calum exclaimed, "I just like making people happy and I hate making people sad."

"Then just don't make me sad," Michael shrugged, like it was nothing.

"It's not that easy,"

"But it is!" Michael sat up, "You shouldn't have to work at good relationships. You shouldn't have to try. If you do have to try to not make me sad, then it's not a relationship that either of us need." He took a deep breath, feeling kind of worn out by how much of himself he was giving up, "That's how I feel."

"I think you're right," Calum said, a soft grin on his face. He leaned in to Michael again, "I'm gonna try to see things your way, because...there is something about you, I don't know." He talked quietly, as if he was sharing secrets, "I really want to be around you, is that weird?"

"Yeah, probably," Michael said with a short laugh, "Because I pretty much suck,"

Calum hummed, "You kinda do," He pressed a kiss to the other boy's cheek, "But I still like you. And so do Luke and Ashton. We all like you a lot."

"But you like me more, right?"

"Probably,"

Cat suddenly came out of nowhere and jumped onto the bed, cuddling up next to Calum. Michael wanted to cry a little bit because he loved Cat and he...really liked Calum and this was the cutest thing in the entire world. Then the other boy started giggling and the whole situation got, somehow, so much cuter.

“What?” Michael asked, giggling along with Calum.

“Your hair matches Cat’s,” He replied between laughs, holding the cat up backwards to Michael to show the black splotch among her white fur.

“Fuck,” Michael said, running a hand self-consciously through his tangled mane.

Calum giggled again, “Lil kitten Mikey,” He cooed.

“I’ll never be punk rock under these conditions,” Michael whined, leaning in close to Calum for comfort, mourning his loss.

Then there was a crash and then Michael's door busted open. Luke walked in with Ashton on his back. He ran towards the bed and toppled on, tackling the couple. Cat swiftly ran away before she could be harmed.

Calum was groaning in pain and laughing uncontrollably and Michael couldn't help but grin at the sound. He couldn't even see Calum in the sea of limbs and hair that the four boys created, but he still smiled at the very thought of him.

He really felt good for the first time in a while. Feeling oddly confident in the band and even more oddly confident about his relationship. These were always two things in Michael's life that were never stable. Calum was actually just what he needed to ground him, probably.

Things were going to be great.

Probably.

 

**Author's Note:**

> [sunglasses emoji] [here](http://derekhalesmom.tumblr.com/post/89082273282/falling-all-over-the-place) is the fic on tumblr. feel free to not follow my tumblr because it sucks but reblog my fic \o/


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